TITLE:
A Low Cost and Versatile STED Superresolution Fluorescent Microscope
AUTHORS:
Daniel McBride, Chin Su, Jun Kameoka, Stanislav Vitha
KEYWORDS:
Stimulated Emission-Depletion Microscopy; STED
JOURNAL NAME:
Modern Instrumentation,
Vol.2 No.3,
July
12,
2013
ABSTRACT:
A versatile and inexpensive super-resolution fluorescent microscope that functions as easily as a conventional confocal microscope is described. Components of the microscope were designed on a platform which was placed atop a surplus microscope frame. All optical components and equipments used are given. The excitation and depletion beams are extracted from a compact low-cost supercontinuum light source. The focal spot of the depletion beam at the focal plane is studied and imaged by a 100 nm aperture near-field fiber tip. The collinear excitation and depletion beam focused by a 0.9 numerical aperture microscope objective produce a 90 nm lateral super-resolution as verified by imaging 100 nm diameter fluorescent beads.