Upconversion nonlinear structured illumination microscopy

Video-rate super-resolution imaging through biological tissue can visualize and track biomolecule interplays and transportations inside cellular organisms. Structured illumination microscopy allows for wide-field super resolution observation of biological samples but is limited by the strong absorption and scattering of light by biological tissues, which degrades its imaging resolution. Here we report a photon upconversion scheme using lanthanide-doped nanoparticles for wide-field super-resolution imaging through the biological transparent window, featured by near-infrared and low-irradiance nonlinear structured illumination. We demonstrate that the 976 nm excitation and 800 nm up-converted emission can mitigate the aberration. We found that the nonlinear response of upconversion emissions from single nanoparticles can effectively generate the required high spatial frequency components in Fourier domain. These strategies lead to a new modality in microscopy with a resolution of 130 nm, 1/7th of the excitation wavelength, and a frame rate of 1 fps.