Achieving λ/10 resolution CW STED nanoscopy with a Ti:sapphire oscillator

Yujia Liu, Yichen Ding, Eric Alonas, Wenli Zhao, Philip J. Santangelo, Dayong Jin, James A. Piper, Junlin Teng, Qiushi Ren, Peng Xi*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

46 Citations (Scopus)
39 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In this report, a Ti:Sapphire oscillator was utilized to realize synchronization-free stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy. With pump power of 4.6 W and sample irradiance of 310 mW, we achieved super-resolution as high as 71 nm. With synchronization-free STED, we imaged 200 nm nanospheres as well as all three cytoskeletal elements (microtubules, intermediate filaments, and actin filaments), clearly demonstrating the resolving power of synchronization-free STED over conventional diffraction limited imaging. It also allowed us to discover that, Dylight 650, exhibits improved performance over ATTO647N, a fluorophore frequently used in STED. Furthermore, we applied synchronization-free STED to image fluorescently-labeled intracellular viral RNA granules, which otherwise cannot be differentiated by confocal microscopy. Thanks to the widely available Ti:Sapphire oscillators in multiphoton imaging system, this work suggests easier access to setup super-resolution microscope via the synchronization-free STED.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere40003
Pages (from-to)1-9
Number of pages9
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume7
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27 Jun 2012

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) [2012]. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

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