Optical-tweezing-based linear-optics nanoscopy

Abstract

Previous works reported that linear optics could be used to observe sub-wavelength features with a conventional optical microscope. Yet, the ability to reach a sub-200 nm resolution with a visible light remains limited. We present a novel widely-applicable method, where particle trapping is employed to overcome this limit. The combination of the light scattered by the sample and by the trapped particles encodes super-resolution information, which we decode by post image processing, with the trapped particle locations predetermined. As the first proof of concept our method successfully resolved sample characteristic features down to 100 nm. Improved performance is achieved with the fluorescence of the trapped particles employed. Further improvement may be attained with trapped particles of a smaller size.