Abstract
Label-free, fast, and single nanoparticle detection is demanded for the in situ monitoring of nano-pollutants in the environment, which have potential toxic effects on human health. We present the label-free imaging of single nanoparticles by using total internal reflection (TIR)-based leakage radiation microscopy. We illustrate the imaging of both single polystyrene (PS) and Au nanospheres with diameters as low as 100 and 30 nm, respectively. As both far-field imaging and simulated near-field electric field intensity distribution at the interface showed the same characteristics, i.e., the localized enhancement and interference of TIR evanescent waves, we confirmed the leakage radiation, transforming the near-field distribution to far-field for fast imaging. The localized enhancement of single PS and Au nanospheres were compared. We also illustrate the TIR-based leakage radiation imaging of single polystyrene nanospheres with different incident polarizations. The TIR-based leakage radiation microscopy method is a competitive alternative for the fast, in situ, label-free imaging of nano-pollutants.
Highlights
Due to their unique properties among bulk materials, synthetic nanoparticles play a key role in various applications, such as disease diagnosis [1,2], cancer treatment [3,4], and drug delivery [5], leading to the growing amount of nanoparticles being released during industrial processes
Total internal reflection (TIR)-based leakage radiation microscopy has no requirement for the scattering separation device and the metallic substrate, and can achieve the imaging by both transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE)-polarized illumination, which makes it more versatile, much simpler, and lower cost compared to TIR dark-field microscopy and leakage radiation microscopy
To quantitatively analyze the interaction between TIR evanescent waves and single nanoparticles, we found the localized enhancement by extracting the area of the bright dot in the images and adding grey values within the area
Summary
Due to their unique properties among bulk materials, synthetic nanoparticles play a key role in various applications, such as disease diagnosis [1,2], cancer treatment [3,4], and drug delivery [5], leading to the growing amount of nanoparticles being released during industrial processes. TIR-based leakage radiation microscopy has no requirement for the scattering separation device and the metallic substrate, and can achieve the imaging by both TM and transverse electric (TE)-polarized illumination, which makes it more versatile, much simpler, and lower cost compared to TIR dark-field microscopy and leakage radiation microscopy. This method is a potential candidate for applications in the fast, in situ, label-free imaging of nano-pollutants
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