STED microscopy Increases the resolution

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Stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy is a variant of super resolution microscopy, for which Point Spread Function (PSF) quality is very important. In this microscopy technique, the gaussian excitation beam is centered with the donut-shaped quenching STED beam, leaving only the central part of the gaussian beam unquenched. Aberrations distort the STED beam, resulting in the quenching of the excitation beam becoming inhomogeneous. This leads to artifacts and a loss of resolution. This method is even more sensitive to aberrations in the 3D variant where the STED beam has a more complex shape. The STED microscopy resolution increase can therefore provide much sharper images which should  will allow new findings and better labeling of biological sampling .

Selected publications:

B. R. Patton et al. “Three-dimensional STED microscopy of aberrating tissues using dual adaptive optics.” Opt. Express 2016, 24, 8862-8876.

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