Doyle, R.T., Szulczewski, M.J. and Haydon, P.G.  Extraction of Near-Field fluorescence from composite signals, to provide high resolution images of glial cells. Biophys. J. 80: 2477-2482.(2001)

Description:

Fiber-optic waveguides can be pulled to a fine aperture of the order of 20-100 nm in diameter. When coated with aluminum, the waveguides permit excitation light to exit only at the tip of the aperture. When a sample is placed in close proximity (the near-field) to the aperture, sub-diffraction optical resolution can be achieved. Near-Field Optical Microscopy can permit optical resolution down to about 20-50 nm. The figure above is a photomicrograph taken using a conventional optical microscope and shows 488 nm light exiting from a near-field probe tip.  These new microscopes are of special interest to biological scientists since most biological samples are not happy being hit by an electron beam.

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