Near‐field fluorescence imaging of single molecules with a resolution in the range of 10 nm
- 1 May 2001
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Microscopy
- Vol. 202 (2) , 362-364
- https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2818.2001.00815.x
Abstract
We demonstrate fluorescence imaging of single molecules, by near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM), using the illumination-collection mode of operation, with an aperture probe. Fluorescence images of single dye molecules were obtained with a spatial resolution of 15 nm, which is smaller than the diameter of the aperture (20 nm) of the probe employed. Such super-resolution may be attributable to non-radiative energy transfer from the molecules to the coated metal of the probe since the resolution obtained in the case of conventional NSOM is limited to 30-50 nm due to penetration of light into the metal.Keywords
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