Self-contained and modular structured illumination microscope

Biomed Opt Express. 2021 Jun 24;12(7):4414-4422. doi: 10.1364/BOE.423492. eCollection 2021 Jul 1.

Abstract

We present a modular implementation of structured illumination microscopy (SIM) that is fast, largely self-contained and that can be added onto existing fluorescence microscopes. Our strategy, which we call HIT-SIM, can theoretically deliver well over 50 super-resolved images per second and is readily compatible with existing acquisition software packages. We provide a full technical package consisting of schematics, a list of components and an alignment scheme that provides detailed specifications and assembly instructions. We illustrate the performance of the instrument by imaging optically large samples containing sequence-specifically stained DNA fragments.