📋 Tender Overview
Team of researchers demonstrated ultra-precise localization and tracking of fluorescent nanoparticlesSub-diffraction limited localization of fluorescent emitters is a major goal of microscopy imaging. It is of key importance for so-called super-resolution a technique that was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014. A cooperation of researchers in Australia China the USA and IRIS Adlershof have now demonstrated ultra-precise localization and tracking of fluorescent nanoparticles dispersed on a mirror. The many randomly oriented molecular dipoles in such up-conversion nanoparticles UCNPs interfere with their own mirror images and create unique bright and position-sensitive patterns in the spatial domain.The pattern can be detected in the far-field by a sensitive camera and was compared to a detailed and quantitative numerical simulation. In this way it was possible to localize individual particles with an accuracy of only 2.8 nm a value which is smaller than 1350 of the excitation wavelength.The localization can be performed rapidly and a single particle can be followed with a 50Hz frame rate. This is much faster than other self-interference-based methods based on mapping of the fluorescence spectrum. A special benefit of UCNPs is their high photo-stability and sensitivity e.g. to temperature and PH. Therefore the novel technique may be used for high-resolution multimodality single-particle tracking and sensing.
