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PMID: 19116611 Published · ppublish English Journal Article

Microscopy and its focal switch.

Nature methods ·Vol. 6 ·No. 1 ·2009-01-00 ·Pages 24-32

Hell SW

Abstract

Until not very long ago, it was widely accepted that lens-based (far-field) optical microscopes cannot visualize details much finer than about half the wavelength of light. The advent of viable physical concepts for overcoming the limiting role of diffraction in the early 1990s set off a quest that has led to readily applicable and widely accessible fluorescence microscopes with nanoscale spatial resolution. Here I discuss the principles of these methods together with their differences in implementation and operation. Finally, I outline potential developments.

MeSH Terms
Animals Microscopy, Fluorescence/instrumentation,methods Nanostructures/ultrastructure Nonlinear Dynamics
Authors & Affiliations
1 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Hell Stefan W
Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Department of NanoBiophotonics, 37070 Göttingen, Germany. hell@nanoscopy.de
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Article Info
Journal
Nature methods
Abbr.
Nat Methods
ISSN
1548-7105
DOI
10.1038/nmeth.1291
Email
hell@nanoscopy.de
Published
2009-01-00
Pages
24-32
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
101215604
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1291 View journal details
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