Overcoming the Resolution Limit Using Striped Patterns: Structured Illumination Microscopy

Abstract

Optical microscopy has entered a new era of super-res- olution imaging. This technology is revealing sub-cel- lular structures and dynamic functions on a nano- meter scale that were previously impossible. A number of ideas have been realized in order to surpass the dif- fraction limit of optical microscopy. Among others struc- tured illumination microscopy (SIM) has been widely studied due to its wide-field imaging nature and less dependence on the fluorophore choice. SIM uses a fine striped pattern of light illumination to extract minute features from the sample. Various advances have been achieved to obtain better resolution, robustness, faster imaging speed, and 3-dimensional imaging of fixed and live specimens based on the principle of SIM.