Super-resolution microscopy enabled by high-efficiency surface-migration emission depletion

Rui Pu, Qiuqiang Zhan (), Xingyun Peng, Siying Liu, Xin Guo, Liangliang Liang, Xian Qin, Ziqing Winston Zhao and Xiaogang Liu ()
Additional contact information
Rui Pu: South China Normal University
Qiuqiang Zhan: South China Normal University
Xingyun Peng: South China Normal University
Siying Liu: South China Normal University
Xin Guo: South China Normal University
Liangliang Liang: National University of Singapore
Xian Qin: National University of Singapore
Ziqing Winston Zhao: National University of Singapore
Xiaogang Liu: National University of Singapore

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Nonlinear depletion of fluorescence states by stimulated emission constitutes the basis of stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy. Despite significant efforts over the past decade, achieving super-resolution at low saturation intensities by STED remains a major technical challenge. By harnessing the surface quenching effect in NaGdF4:Yb/Tm nanocrystals, we report here high-efficiency emission depletion through surface migration. Using a dual-beam, continuous-wave laser manipulation scheme (975-nm excitation and 730-nm de-excitation), we achieved an emission depletion efficiency of over 95% and a low saturation intensity of 18.3 kW cm−2. Emission depletion by surface migration through gadolinium sublattices enables super-resolution imaging with sub-20 nm lateral resolution. Our approach circumvents the fundamental limitation of high-intensity STED microscopy, providing autofluorescence-free, re-excitation-background-free imaging with a saturation intensity over three orders of magnitude lower than conventional fluorophores. We also demonstrated super-resolution imaging of actin filaments in Hela cells labeled with 8-nm nanoparticles. Combined with the highly photostable lanthanide luminescence, surface-migration emission depletion (SMED) could provide a powerful mechanism for low-power, super-resolution imaging or biological tracking as well as super-resolved optical sensing/writing and lithography.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33726-7 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-33726-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33726-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().