Nanooptics using integrated photonics
ABSTRACT :
Super-resolution optical microscopy commonly referred to as optical nanoscopy has provided a glimpse of its future impact on biology, life science and medical diagnostics [1, 2]. Although optical nanoscopy offers unprecedented opportunities, the vision to replace present day standard microscopes with optical nanoscopes is still far from reality due to present limitations of nanoscopy methodologies. The widespread adoption of nanoscopy is currently hindered by system complexity, cost, lack of multi-modality, imaging speed and the need for skilful and highly trained operators. Photonic integrated circuits (PIC) reduce the footprint, cost and complexity of optical systems. PIC technology enables on-chip integration of several optical functions. The compatibility with standard optical fibre components enables high-speed light coupling into PICs. Here, I will provide an overview of several optical nanoscopy methodologies developed that we have developed using an integrated photonic-chip. We have developed photonic-chip based single molecule localization optical microscopy (SML-OM), structured illumination microscopy (SIM), light intensity fluctuation based optical nanoscopy (e.g. ESI, SRRF, MUSICAL) and correlative light-electron microscopy. Using the principle of single molecule localization, we demonstrate a resolution of 50 nm using chip-based nanoscopy [3]. Furthermore, we demonstrate the capability of chip-based nanoscopy to acquire super-resolved images over millimetre field-of-view scale; a 100-fold increase in imaging area as compared to other nanoscopy solutions, thus opening the opportunities of high-throughput optical nanoscopy [3, 4]. In this talk, I will also provide a short overview of recent developments on label-free quantitative phase microscopy (APM) and the biological applications that focus on performing high-speed, live cell 3D nanoscopy of sub-cellular organelles such as mitochondria, endosomes, vesicle and nano-pores present in cell membrane.