Fluorescence near-field microscopy of DNA at sub-10 nm resolution

Phys Rev Lett. 2006 Dec 31;97(26):260801. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.260801. Epub 2006 Dec 27.

Abstract

We demonstrate apertureless near-field microscopy of single molecules at sub-10 nm resolution. With a novel phase filter, near-field images of single organic fluorophores were obtained with approximately sixfold improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio. The improvement allowed pairs of molecules separated by approximately 15 nm to be reliably and repeatedly resolved, thus demonstrating the first true Rayleigh resolution test for near-field images of single molecules. The potential of this technique for biological applications was demonstrated with an experiment that measured the helical rise of A-form DNA.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Carbocyanines / chemistry
  • DNA, A-Form / chemistry*
  • Fluorescent Dyes / chemistry
  • Microscopy, Atomic Force
  • Microscopy, Confocal
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence
  • Nucleic Acid Conformation
  • Silicon

Substances

  • Carbocyanines
  • DNA, A-Form
  • Fluorescent Dyes
  • cyanine dye 3
  • Silicon