Analysis of intensity correlation enhanced plasmonic structured illumination microscopy

TL;DR

This paper introduces an enhanced plasmonic structured illumination microscopy technique using intensity correlations to achieve ultrahigh resolution imaging without gaps in the optical transfer function, suitable for low-light conditions.

Contribution

The study develops a novel intensity correlation approach to improve LP-SIM resolution, enabling gapless high-resolution imaging with realistic noise considerations.

Findings

Simulations show improved resolution with noise robustness.

Enlarged optical transfer function supports ultrahigh resolution.

Potential for low-light, high-resolution microscopy applications.

Abstract

We propose to enhance the performance of localized plasmon structured illumination microscopy (LP-SIM) via intensity correlations. LP-SIM uses sub-wavelength illumination patterns to encode high spatial frequency information. It can enhance the resolution up to three-fold before gaps in the OTF support arise. For blinking fluorophores or for quantum antibunching an intensity correlation analysis induces higher harmonics of the illumination pattern and enlarges the effective OTF. This enables ultrahigh resolutions without gaps in the OTF support, and thus a fully deterministic imaging scheme. We present simulations that include shot and external noise and demonstrate the resolution power under realistic photon budgets. The technique has potential in light microscopy where low-intensity illumination is paramount while aiming for high spatial but moderate temporal resolutions.