Label-free single molecule imaging with numerical aperture-shaped interferometric scattering microscopy

Journal article

Our ability to optically interrogate nanoscopic objects is controlled by the difference between their extinction cross sections and the diffraction-limited area to which light can be confined in the far-field. Here, we show that a partially transmissive spatial mask placed near the back focal plane of a high numerical aperture microscope objective enhances the extinction contrast of a scatterer near an interface by approximately T^-1/2, where T is the transmissivity of the mask. Numerical aperture-based differentiation of background from scattered light represents a general approach to increasing extinction contrast and enables routine label-free imaging down to the single molecule level.

Authors: Cole, D; Young, G; Weigel, A; Kukura, P

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Journal: ACS Photonics
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 211-216
• Publication date: 2017-01-18
• DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.6b00912
• EISSN: 2330-4022
• Keywords: biosensing; label-free; single-molecule imaging; interferometric scattering