Super Resolution Optical Imaging with Electron Beam Excitation
Research Institute of Electronics, Shizuoka University
Abstract: We have developed electron beam excitation assisted optical microscope and demonstrated its resolution higher than 50 nm. In the microscope, a light source in a few nanometers size is excited by focused electron beam in a luminescent film. The microscope makes it possible to observe dynamic behavior of living biological specimens in various surroundings, such as air or liquids. Scan speed of the nanometric light source is faster than that in conventional near-field scanning optical microscopes. The microscope enables to observe optical constants such as absorption, refractive index, polarization, and their dynamic behavior on a nanometric scale. We demonstrated the resolution evaluation with the numerical analysis based on the combination of Monte-Calro simulation and finite-differential time-domain method. The observation of dynamic movements of biological cells are also demonstrated. The microscope opens new microscopy applications in nano-technology and nano-science.
Key words: Optical microscopy, Electron microscopy, Super resolution, Bio-imaging, Monte-Carlo simulation