Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for the Green Preparation and Application of Functional Materials, Hubei Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, P. R. China.
School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Bangor University, Bangor, LL57 1UT, UK.
Small. 2023 Jun;19(23):e2207596. doi: 10.1002/smll.202207596. Epub 2023 Mar 10.
Super-resolution optical imaging techniques can break the optical diffraction limit, thus providing unique opportunities to visualize the microscopic world at the nanoscale. Although near-field optical microscopy techniques have been proven to achieve significantly improved imaging resolution, most near-field approaches still suffer from a narrow field of view (FOV) or difficulty in obtaining wide-field images in real time, which may limit their widespread and diverse applications. Here, the authors experimentally demonstrate an optical microscope magnification and image enhancement approach by using a submillimeter-sized solid immersion lens (SIL) assembled by densely-packed 15 nm TiO nanoparticles through a silicone oil two-step dehydration method. This TiO nanoparticle-assembled SIL can achieve both high transparency and high refractive index, as well as sufficient mechanical strength and easy-to-handle size, thus providing a fast, wide-field, real-time, non-destructive, and low-cost solution for improving the quality of optical microscopic observation of a variety of samples, including nanomaterials, cancer cells, and living cells or bacteria under conventional optical microscopes. This study provides an attractive alternative to simplify the fabrication and applications of high-performance SILs.
超分辨率光学成像技术可以突破光学衍射极限，从而为在纳米尺度上可视化微观世界提供独特的机会。尽管近场光学显微镜技术已被证明可以实现显著提高的成像分辨率，但大多数近场方法仍然存在视场（FOV）狭窄或难以实时获得宽场图像的问题，这可能限制了它们的广泛和多样化应用。在这里，作者通过使用通过硅油两步脱水法组装的密排 15nmTiO 纳米颗粒的亚毫米尺寸的固浸透镜（SIL），实验性地展示了一种光学显微镜放大和图像增强方法。这种 TiO 纳米颗粒组装的 SIL 具有高透明度和高折射率，以及足够的机械强度和易于处理的尺寸，从而为提高各种样品的光学显微镜观察质量提供了一种快速、宽场、实时、无损和低成本的解决方案，包括纳米材料、癌细胞以及在传统光学显微镜下的活细胞或细菌。本研究为简化高性能 SIL 的制造和应用提供了一种有吸引力的替代方案。
