title: Wide-field optical imaging of surface nanostructures.
abstract: We present a new technique that increases the sensitivity of incoherent light optical microscopy to a point where it becomes possible to directly visualize ultrathin films (approximately nanometers) and isolated nano-objects. The technique is based on the use of nonreflecting substrate surfaces for cross-polarized reflected light microscopy. These surfaces generate a contrast enhancement of about 2 orders of magnitude, extending the application field of wide-field optical microscopy toward the nanoworld. The efficiency of the method is proven experimentally on well-characterized samples. Wide-field imaging of a nonlabeled lambda-DNA molecule is also presented.
authors.affiliation: CNRS Université du Maine, UMR 6087, Le Mans, France. ausserre@univ-lemans.fr
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ausserré
authors.forename: Marie-Pierre
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Valignat
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D008859:Microscopy, Polarization / Q000379:methods*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D004247:DNA