Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Commentary
  • Published:

Resolving a misconception about structured illumination

Nature Photonics volume 8, pages 342–344 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Applying structured illumination microscopy to coherent imaging modalities such as scattering does not yield any additional information beyond that provided by oblique illumination. It thus yields no resolution enhancement over the Abbe diffraction limit, which was derived precisely for that case.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Frequency representation of the detectable information for various coherent illumination schemes in reflection geometry.
Figure 2: Resolution capability of different illumination schemes (simulation).

References

  1. Hell, S. W. & Wichmann, J. Opt. Lett. 19, 780–782 (1994).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Betzig, E. et al. Science 313, 1642–1645 (2006).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Hess, S. T., Girirajan, T. P. K. & Mason, M. D. Biophys. J. 91, 4258–4272 (2006).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Rust, M. J., Bates, M. & Zhuang, X. Nature Methods 3, 793–796 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Heintzmann, R. & Cremer, C. SPIE Proc. 3568, 185–196 (1999).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Gustafsson, M. G. L. J. Microsc. 198, 82–87 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Chang, B.-J., Lin, S. H., Chou, L.-J. & Chiang, S.-Y. Opt. Lett. 36, 4773–4775 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Chowdhury, S., Dhalla, A.-H. & Izatt, J. Biomed. Opt. Express 3, 1841–1854 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Dan, D. et al. Sci. Rep. 3, 1116 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Abbe, E. Archiv für Mikroskopische Anatomie 9, 413–468 (1873).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Lucosz, W. J. Opt. Soc. Am. 57, 932–941 (1967).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Zheng, G., Horstmeyer, R. & Yang, C. Nature Photon. 7, 739–745 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kai Wicker wrote this commentary while at the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Abbe Center of Photonics, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Helmholtzweg 4, 07743 Jena, Germany, Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT), Albert-Einstein Strasse 9, 07745 Jena, Germany; his present affiliation is Carl Zeiss AG, Corporate Research and Technology, Carl-Zeiss-Promenade 10, 07745 Jena, Germany,

    Kai Wicker

  2. his present affiliation is Carl Zeiss AG, Corporate Research and Technology, Carl-Zeiss-Promenade 10, 07745 Jena, Germany,

    Kai Wicker

  3. and Randall Division of Cell and Molecular Biophysics, Rainer Heintzmann is at the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Abbe Center of Photonics, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Helmholtzweg 4, 07743 Jena, Germany, Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT), Albert-Einstein Strasse 9, 07745 Jena, Germany, King's College London, NHH, Guy's Campus, London SE1 1UL, UK,

    Rainer Heintzmann

Authors
  1. Kai Wicker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rainer Heintzmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rainer Heintzmann.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Rainer Heintzmann holds a patent (patent no. WO2000052512A1) on nonlinear structured illumination microscopy. Kai Wicker currently works for a company that has an associated enterprise with a structured illumination microscope in their sales portfolio.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wicker, K., Heintzmann, R. Resolving a misconception about structured illumination. Nature Photon 8, 342–344 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2014.88

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2014.88

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing