Description of deep saturated excitation multiphoton microscopy for super-resolution imaging
Abstract
Here we recount the standard two-level model that describes saturated excitation (SAX) in multiphoton microscopy (MPM), a new technique for super-resolution fluorescence microscopy in scattering tissue, which requires no special chemistry and only simple modifications to a commercial MPM microscope. We use the model to study conditions required for improvements in MPM SAX resolution and experimental implementation strategies. Simulation results find zeros, or nodes, in the frequency response, which generate highly irregular point-spread functions (PSFs), such as rings and ripples, that contain spatial frequency content >3× larger than allowed by diffraction. These PSFs are a direct result of zeros in the frequency response of saturated fluorophores under specific excitation conditions. The impact on image quality is discussed using simulations of targets imaged with SAX PSFs. Further, we explore engineering sets of irregular PSFs by varying the excitation power and reconstructing super-resolution images from the set of captured images.
Yide Zhang
NIH K99 Postdoctoral Fellow
My research is interdisciplinary and focused on developing new types of optical imaging techniques that could advance the work of other researchers and medical personnel in a wide variety of fields. Currently, I am developing next-generation photoacoustic and ultrafast imaging techniques that can observe biological and physical phenomena that are too fast to be imaged with existing methods. The observation of the ultrafast phenomena could provide a better understanding of the fundamentals of life and physical sciences. I am also developing novel quantum imaging approaches that can investigate biological organisms with an imaging performance that cannot be achieved using classical optical imaging. In my free time, I enjoy cooking, hiking, cycling, and traveling.