Applications of nanostructures in wide-field, label-free super resolution microscopy**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61735017 and 51672245), the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. R17F050003), the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2015CB352003), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China, the Program for Zhejiang Leading Team

Abstract

Super resolution imaging capable of resolving details beyond the diffraction limit is highly desired in many scientific and application fields, including bio-medicine, nanomaterial science, and opto-electronic integration. Up to now, many different methods have been proposed, among which wide-field, label-free super resolution microscopy is indispensable due to its good applicability to diverse sample types, large field of view (FOV), and high imaging speed. In recent years, nanostructures have made a crucial contribution to the wide-field, label-free subdiffraction microscopy, with various working mechanisms and configuration designs. This review summarizes the recent applications of the nanostructures in the wide-field, label-free super resolution microscopy, with the emphasis on the designs of hyperlens with hyperbolic dispersion, microsphere with “nano-jets”, and nanowire ring illumination microscopy based on spatial frequency shift effect. The bottlenecks of the current techniques and possible solutions are also discussed.