Localized plasmonic structured illumination microscopy (LPSIM) provides multicolor wide-field super-resolution imaging with low phototoxicity and high-speed capability. LPSIM utilizes a nanoscale plasmonic antenna array to provide a series of tunable illumination patterns beyond the traditional diffraction limit, allowing for enhanced resolving powers down to a few tens of nanometers. Here, we demonstrate wide-field LPSIM with 50 nm spatial resolution at video rate speed by imaging microtubule dynamics with low illumination power intensity. The design of the LPSIM system makes it suitable for imaging surface effects of cells and tissues with regular sample preparation protocols. LPSIM can be extended to much higher resolution, representing an excellent technology for live-cell imaging of protein dynamics and interactions.

Super-resolution fluorescence imaging has offered unprecedented insights and revolutionized our understanding of biology. In particular, localized plasmonic structured illumination microscopy (LPSIM) achieves video-rate super-resolution imaging with ∼50 nm spatial resolution by leveraging subdiffraction-limited nearfield patterns generated by plasmonic nanoantenna arrays. However, the conventional trial-and-error design process for LPSIM arrays is time-consuming and computationally intensive, limiting the exploration of optimal designs. Here, we propose a hybrid inverse design framework combining deep learning and genetic algorithms to refine LPSIM arrays. A population of designs is evaluated using a trained convolutional neural network, and a multiobjective optimization method optimizes them through iteration and evolution. Simulations demonstrate that the optimized LPSIM substrate surpasses traditional substrates, exhibiting higher reconstruction accuracy, robustness against noise, and increased tolerance for fewer measurements. This framework not only proves the efficacy of inverse design for tailoring LPSIM substrates but also opens avenues for exploring new plasmonic nanostructures in imaging applications.

Determining the axial position of an emitter with nanoscale precision is critical to a fundamental imaging methodology. While there are many advanced optical techniques being applied to high-resolution imaging, high-axial-resolution topography imaging of living cells is particularly challenging. Here, we present an application of metamaterial-assisted photobleaching microscopy (MAPM) with high-axial resolution to characterize morphological properties of living cells. Quantitative imaging of changes in the morphology of live cells is obtained by topographic and statistical analysis. The time-lapse topography image using the metamaterial-induced photostability provides information about growth factor induced changes in the cell morphology with high-axial resolution.

In this Letter, we propose a new quantitative phase imaging methodology named Fourier optical spin splitting microscopy (FOSSM). FOSSM relies on a metasurface located at the Fourier plane of a polarized microscope to separate the object image into two replicas of opposite circularly polarized states. The bias retardation between the two replicas is tuned by translating the metasurface or rotating the analyzer. Combined with a polarized camera, FOSSM can easily achieve single-shot quantitative phase gradient imaging, which greatly reduces the complexity of current phase microscope setups, paving the way for the next generation high-speed real-time multifunctional microscopy.

Recent advancements in optical metamaterials have opened new possibilities in the exciting field of super-resolution microscopies. The far-field metamaterial-assisted illumination nanoscopies (MAINs) have, very recently, enhanced the lateral resolution to one-fifteenth of the optical wavelength. However, the axial localization accuracy of fluorophores in the MAINs remains rarely explored. Here, a MAIN with a nanometer-scale axial localization accuracy is demonstrated by monitoring the distance-dependent photobleaching dynamics of the fluorophores on top of an organic hyperbolic metamaterial (OHM) substrate under a wide-field single-objective microscope. With such a regular experimental configuration, 3D imaging of various biological samples with the resolution of ≈40 nm in the lateral dimensions and ≈5 nm in the axial dimension is realized. The demonstrated imaging modality enables the resolution of the 3D morphology of nanoscopic cellular structures with a significantly simplified experimental setup.

Optical edge detection is a useful method for characterizing boundaries, which is also in the forefront of image processing for object detection. As the field of metamaterials and metasurface is growing fast in an effort to miniaturize optical devices at unprecedented scales, experimental realization of optical edge detection with metamaterials remains a challenge and lags behind theoretical proposals. Here, we propose a mechanism of edge detection based on a Pancharatnam-Berry-phase metasurface. We experimentally demonstrated broadband edge detection using designed dielectric metasurfaces with high optical efficiency. The metasurfaces were fabricated by scanning a focused laser beam inside glass substrate and can be easily integrated with traditional optical components. The proposed edge-detection mechanism may find important applications in image processing, high-contrast microscopy, and real-time object detection on compact optical platforms such as mobile phones and smart cameras.

Fluorescence super-resolution microscopy has, over the last two decades, been extensively developed to access deep-subwavelength nanoscales optically. Label-free super-resolution technologies however have only achieved a slight improvement compared to the diffraction limit. In this context, we demonstrate a label-free imaging method, i.e., hyperbolic material enhanced scattering (HMES) nanoscopy, which breaks the diffraction limit by tailoring the light-matter interaction between the specimens and a hyperbolic material substrate. By exciting the highly confined evanescent hyperbolic polariton modes with dark-field detection, HMES nanoscopy successfully shows a high-contrast scattering image with a spatial resolution around 80 nm. Considering the wavelength at 532 nm and detection optics with a 0.6 numerical aperture (NA) objective lens, this value represents a 5.5-fold resolution improvement beyond the diffraction limit. HMES provides capabilities for super-resolution imaging where fluorescence is not available or challenging to apply.

Optical analog signal processing technology has been widely studied and applied in a variety of science and engineering fields, with the advantages of overcoming the low-speed and high-power consumption associated with its digital counterparts. Much attention has been given to emerging metasurface technology in the field of optical imaging and processing systems. Here, we demonstrate, for the first time, broadband two-dimensional spatial differentiation and high-contrast edge imaging based on a dielectric metasurface across the whole visible spectrum. This edge detection method works for both intensity and phase objects simply by inserting the metasurface into a commercial optical microscope. This highly efficient metasurface performing a basic optical differentiation operation opens up new opportunities in applications of fast, compactible and power-efficient ultrathin devices for data processing and biological imaging.

The dynamics of photons in fluorescent molecules plays a key role in fluorescence imaging, optical sensing, organic photovoltaics, and displays. Photobleaching is an irreversible photodegradation process of fluorophores, representing a fundamental limitation in relevant optical applications. Chemical reagents are used to suppress the photobleaching rate but with exceptionally high specificity for each type of fluorophore. Here, using organic hyperbolic materials (OHMs), an optical platform to achieve unprecedented fluorophore photostability without any chemical specificity is demonstrated. A more than 500-fold lengthening of the photobleaching lifetime and a 230-fold increase in the total emitted photon counts are observed simultaneously. These exceptional improvements solely come from the low-loss hyperbolic dispersion of OHM films and the large resultant Purcell effect in the visible spectral range. The demonstrated OHM platform may open up a new paradigm in nanophotonics and organic plasmonics for super-resolution imaging and the engineering of light-matter interactions at the nanoscale.

Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) is one of the most powerful and versatile optical super-resolution techniques. Compared with other super-resolution methods, SIM has shown its unique advantages in wide-field imaging with high temporal resolution and low photon damage. However, traditional SIM only has about 2 times spatial resolution improvement compared to the diffraction limit. In this work, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an easily-implemented, low-cost method to extend the resolution of SIM, named speckle metamaterial-assisted illumination nanoscopy (speckle-MAIN). A metamaterial structure is introduced to generate speckle-like sub-diffraction-limit illumination patterns in the near field with improved spatial frequency. Such patterns, similar to traditional SIM, are then used to excite objects on top of the surface. We demonstrate that speckle-MAIN can bring the resolution down to 40 nm and beyond. Speckle-MAIN represents a new route for super-resolution, which may lead to important applications in bio-imaging and surface characterization.