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arXiv · 2604.00413

Structured detection microscopy

Larnii Booth·Kyle Clunies-Ross·Rumelo Amor·Nicolas Mauranyapin·Zixin Huang·Michael A. Taylor·Warwick P. Bowen
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Abstract

Super-resolution microscopy is crucial for imaging sub-wavelength biological structures. However, most techniques rely on nonlinear saturation or stochastic switching of emitters, limiting imaging speed and increasing phototoxicity. Here, we achieve deep super-resolution without employing saturation or stochastic dynamics, instead using a form of spatial mode demultiplexing. By shaping the point-spread function of the emitted light, our Structured Detection Microscope (SDM) redistributes information away from high shot-noise regions of the image, enhancing sensitivity to sub-diffraction emitter separations in two-dimensions and without mode-sorting optics. Implementing SDM within a high-numerical aperture total internal reflection fluorescence microscope, we demonstrate imaging of fluorophores attached to DNA nanorulers with separations as small as 50 nm at resolutions surpassing 40 nm - fivefold below the diffraction limit. This shows that spatial mode demultiplexing can achieve far sub-wavelength resolution and is applicable to biologically relevant samples. By enabling super-resolution biomolecular imaging without emitter saturation and stochasticity, our work opens the door to better understanding biological structure, function and dynamics.

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Larnii Booth, Kyle Clunies-Ross, Rumelo Amor, Nicolas Mauranyapin, Zixin Huang, Michael A. Taylor, Warwick P. Bowen. 2026-04-01. Structured detection microscopy. https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.00413

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