Diekmann, R. et al. Nat. Photonics 11, 322–328 (2017).

Super-resolution microscopy methods typically require sophisticated optical setups, which can be a barrier to their use. Diekmann et al. develop a chip-based approach that uses a standard microscope in combination with a specialized waveguide chip for single-molecule localization microscopy. The waveguide is used for sample excitation and therefore removes the need for an excitation light path on the microscope; this allows for miniaturization of the entire setup. An added benefit of this method is that properly designed waveguides can offer excitation over large fields of view. An innovation in this work was the use of materials with high refractive index contrast to build the chip, as these materials allow for tighter confinement of light within the waveguide. The researchers demonstrated entropy-based super-resolution imaging as well as direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy over a large 0.5 mm × 0.5 mm field of view.