Alf Honigmann

Research Group Leader, Department Nanobiophotonics at Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry

Alf Honigmann is Research Group Leader at the the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Department Nanobiophotonics (Göttingen, Germany).

FIGURE 1. Principle of STED. a) Schematic drawing of the setup of a STED nanoscope with phase plate, objective lens dichroic mirror (DC), fluorescence filter (F), detector, scanning device and excitation, and STED lasers with their focal intensity distribution (right) and a representative, sub-diffraction-sized observation area. b) STED nanoscopy is based on inhibiting fluorescence emission by de-exciting the excited S1 state to the S0 ground state via stimulated emission. The probability to switch off fluorophores is increased with increasing STED power. c) This power dependence delivers sub-diffraction-sized observation volumes: The volume in which fluorescence emission is still allowed (green, insets) decreases with increasing STED laser power.

Research

BIOPHOTONICS: Super-resolution STED microscopy advances with yellow CW OPSL

Matthias Schulze

Jan. 1, 2012

The low noise of a 577 nm CW optically pumped semiconductor laser enables researchers to image cellular structures and membrane dynamics with unprecedented resolution using blue...