Unlabelled super-resolution imaging using polarisation-contrast super-oscillatory microscopy

Abstract

Super-resolution microscopy is an important new tool for the biosciences, but current techniques require addition of fluorescent probes. We have developed a new technique for optical super-resolution imaging of unlabelled living cells. Optical super-oscillations allow us to create an arbitrarily small hotspot using precisely engineered interference of light. Super-oscillatory hotspots are, however, surrounded by sidebands that contain a fraction of the optical power - trading efficiency for resolution. We replace the conventional focusing lens in a confocal microscope with a super-oscillatory lens and use the pinhole to reject the light scattered from the sidebands, giving us an image with resolution determined by the size of the super-oscillatory hotspot.
To image unlabelled cells, we combine this with an advanced form of polarisation-contrast imaging. We capture four super-resolved images of the sample with different incident polarisations, from which we calculate the anisotropy magnitude and orientation. This highlights those parts of a cell with significant molecular structuring, such actin filaments, microtubules, and even protein enriched lipid bilayers such as vesicles and cell membranes.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Tracey Newman: orcid.org/0000-0002-3727-9258

ORCID for John Chad: orcid.org/0000-0001-6442-4281

ORCID for Nikolai Zheludev: orcid.org/0000-0002-1013-6636

ORCID for P.J.S. Smith: orcid.org/0000-0003-4400-6853

Catalogue record

Export record