Super-resolution bright-field optical microscopy based on nanometer topographic contrast

✍ Scribed by Shu-Wei Huang; Hong-Yao Mong; Chau-Hwang Lee

• Book ID: 102334024
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 208 KB
• Volume: 65
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1059-910X
• DOI: 10.1002/jemt.20091

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

By using an expectation‐maximization maximum likelihood estimation algorithm to improve the lateral resolution of a recently developed non‐interferometric wide‐field optical profilometer, we obtain super‐resolution bright‐field optical images of nanometer features on a flat surface. The optical profilometer employs a 365‐nm light source and an ordinary objective lens of a 0.95 numerical aperture. For objects of 100 nm thickness, lateral features about λ/7 can be resolved in the restored images without fluorescence labeling. Current image acquisition rate is 0.1 frame/sec, which is limited by the brightness of the light source. With a brighter light source, the imaging speed can be fast enough for real‐time observation of dynamic activities in the nanometer scale. Microsc. Res. Tech. 65:180–185, 2004. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.