title: Full-field near-field optical microscope for cell imaging.
abstract: We report a new full-field fluorescence microscopy method for imaging live cell membranes based on supercritical near-field emission. This technique consists of extracting the self-interference between undercritical and supercritical light by simple image subtraction. In the objective back focal plane, this is equivalent to adding a virtual mask blocking the subcritical emission. We show that this virtual mask is radically different from a real physical mask, enabling a 100 nm axial confinement and enhancing the image sensitivity without damaging the lateral resolution. This technique is easy to implement and simultaneously provides images of the inner parts of the cell and its membrane with standard-illumination light.
authors.affiliation: Centre d'Imageries Plasmoniques Appliquées, Institut Langevin, Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles (ESPCI) ParisTech, CNRS UMR 7587, Université Paris Diderot, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Barroca
authors.forename: Karla
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Balaa
authors.forename: Sandrine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lévêque-Fort
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fort
mesh_terms: D002232:Carbocyanines / Q000737:chemistry; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D057809:HEK293 Cells; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D008962:Models, Theoretical
chemical_list: D002232:Carbocyanines; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; C085321:cyanine dye 5