A super-resolution imaging technique has been developed by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Their work, published in Optica, describes how the group used ghost imaging to enhance the imaging speed of nanoscopy. The new technique produces nanometer resolution using significantly less images than traditional techniques.
Co-leader of the investigation, Wang Zhongyang, said: "Our imaging method can potentially probe dynamics occurring on millisecond time-scales in subcellular structures with spatial resolution of tens of nanometers - the spatial and temporal resolution at which biological processes take place".
The new technique uses stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy, or STORM, a wide-field technique that relies on fluorescent labels that switches between dark and light-emitting states. By acquiring thousands of images, each image capturing the subset of fluorescent labels that are in light-emitting states at a given time period enables researchers to determine the location of each molecule and reconstruct the fluorescent image. This new imaging technique enhances imaging speed as well as imaging efficiency.