Wide-field super-resolution optical sectioning microscopy using a single spatial light modulator

Abstract

We employ a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator to perform two-dimensional structured light illumination in a conventional wide-field optical microscope. We develop a new algorithm in which only the spatial-frequency components with axial sectioning ability are included, such that the composed super-resolution images preserve depth resolution. By using this new algorithm to process the modulated image set, we improve the lateral resolution to 0.29 wavelengths and achieve a depth resolution of 0.38 wavelengths simultaneously. The image acquisition rate can be as high as one super-resolution image per second. This simple and high-resolution wide-field optical microscopy is used for resolving the structures of actin filaments inside a cell.