Miniaturized structured illumination microscopy with diffractive optics

Abstract

Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) is an advanced microscope system that provides superresolution capability with excellent imaging speed, which has become a practical tool for live-cell imaging. However, the bulky size is blocking the application of SIM in wider study fields and scenarios. Here, we developed a miniaturized SIM (Mini SIM) system that provided periodic illumination using a diffractive optical element (DOE) for the first time. This optimized phase-only DOE generated the two-dimensional sinusoidal illumination by optical Fourier transform with an illuminating objective lens, which substantially simplified and miniaturized the illumination system. We built up a Mini SIM prototype and demonstrated lateral superresolution imaging of fluorescence beads and A549 cell slides. The proposed Mini SIM greatly simplifies the experimental setup and may lead to important applications in bio-imaging.