Particle tracking by repetitive phase-shift interferometric super resolution microscopy

Alkali etched fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer with compact sensor head

We demonstrate a scheme for fabricating compact fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). A section of Ge-doped fiber (GDF) is sandwiched between two single-mode fibers. The sandwich structure is side polished to make the core of GDF exposed to the surroundings. Alkali solution is utilized to etch the core of GDF. A compact fiber MZI is achieved when about half of the core is etched. Compared with the traditional ones, our scheme for fabricating fiber MZI has the characteristics of low cost, environmentally friendly, and regular transmission spectrum. This fiber MZI not only reduces the consumption of the sample, but also brings forth a good potential for micro-scale detection of refractive index.

Nanoscale Resolution 3D Snapshot Particle Tracking by Multifocal Microscopy

Accurate, precise, and rapid particle tracking in three dimensions remains a challenge; yet, its achievement will significantly enhance our understanding of living systems. We developed a multifocal microscopy (MFM) that allows snapshot acquisition of the imaging data, and an associated image processing approach, that together allow simultaneous 3D tracking of many fluorescent particles with nanoscale resolution. The 3D tracking was validated by measuring a known trajectory of a fluorescent bead with an axial accuracy of 19 nm through an image depth (axial range) of 3 μm and 4 nm precision of axial localization through an image depth of 4 μm. A second test obtained a uniform axial probability distribution and Brownian dynamics of beads diffusing in solution. We also validated the MFM approach by imaging fluorescent beads immobilized in gels and comparing the 3D localizations to their "ground truth" positions obtained from a confocal microscopy z-stack of finely spaced images. Finally, we applied our MFM and image processing approach to obtain 3D trajectories of insulin granules in pseudoislets of MIN6 cells to demonstrate its compatibility with complex biological systems. Our study demonstrates that multifocal microscopy allows rapid (video rate) and simultaneous 3D tracking of many "particles" with nanoscale accuracy and precision in a wide range of systems, including over spatial scales relevant to whole live cells.

Design and simulation of a snapshot multi-focal interferometric microscope

Realizing both high temporal and spatial resolution across a large volume is a key challenge for 3D fluorescent imaging. Towards achieving this objective, we introduce an interferometric multifocus microscopy (iMFM) system, a combination of multifocus microscopy (MFM) with two opposing objective lenses. We show that the proposed iMFM is capable of simultaneously producing multiple focal plane interferometry that provides axial super-resolution and hence isotropic 3D resolution with a single exposure. We design and simulate the iMFM microscope by employing two special diffractive optical elements. The point spread function of this new iMFM microscope is simulated and the image formation model is given. For reconstruction, we use the Richardson-Lucy deconvolution algorithm with total variation regularization for 3D extended object recovery, and a maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) for single molecule tracking. A method for determining an initial axial position of the molecule is also proposed to improve the convergence of the MLE. We demonstrate both theoretically and numerically that isotropic 3D nanoscopic localization accuracy is achievable with an axial imaging range of 2um when tracking a fluorescent molecule in three dimensions and that the diffraction limited axial resolution can be improved by 3-4 times in the single shot wide-field 3D extended object recovery. We believe that iMFM will be a useful tool in 3D dynamic event imaging that requires both high temporal and spatial resolution.