title: Ground State Depletion Nanoscopy Resolves Semiconductor Nanowire Barcode Segments at Room Temperature.
abstract: Nanowires hold great promise as tools for probing and interacting with various molecular and biological systems. Their unique geometrical properties (typically <100 nm in diameter and a few micrometers in length) enable minimally invasive interactions with living cells, so that electrical signals or forces can be monitored. All such experiments require in situ high-resolution imaging to provide context. While there is a clear need to extend visualization capabilities to the nanoscale, no suitable super-resolution far-field photoluminescence microscopy of extended semiconductor emitters has been described. Here, we report that ground state depletion (GSD) nanoscopy resolves heterostructured semiconductor nanowires formed by alternating GaP/GaInP segments ("barcodes") at a 5-fold resolution enhancement over confocal imaging. We quantify the resolution and contrast dependence on the dimensions of GaInP photoluminescence segments and illustrate the effects by imaging different nanowire barcode geometries. The far-red excitation wavelength (∼700 nm) and low excitation power (∼3 mW) make GSD nanoscopy attractive for imaging semiconductor structures in biological applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of NanoBiophotonics, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry , 37077 Göttingen, Germany.|Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw , 02-093 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oracz
authors.affiliation: Division of Solid State Physics and NanoLund, Lund University , 22100 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Adolfsson
authors.affiliation: Department of NanoBiophotonics, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry , 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Westphal
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw , 02-093 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Czesław
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Radzewicz
authors.affiliation: Division of Solid State Physics and NanoLund, Lund University , 22100 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Magnus T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Borgström
authors.affiliation: Department of NanoBiophotonics, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry , 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Steffen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Sahl
authors.affiliation: Division of Solid State Physics and NanoLund, Lund University , 22100 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Christelle N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Prinz
authors.affiliation: Department of NanoBiophotonics, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry , 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan W
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9638-5077
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Hell
keywords: Nanowires; microscopy; photoluminescence; semiconductor heterostructures; super-resolution imaging