Localization capability and limitation of electron-multiplying charge-coupled, scientific complementary metal-oxide semiconductor, and charge-coupled devices for superresolution imaging

Localization of a single fluorescent molecule is required in a number of superresolution imaging techniques for visualizing biological structures at cellular and subcellular levels. The localization capability and limitation of low-light detectors are critical for such a purpose. We present an updated evaluation on the performance of three typical low-light detectors, including a popular electron-multiplying CCD (EMCCD), a newly developed scientific CMOS (sCMOS), and a representative cooled CCD, for superresolution imaging. We find that under some experimental accessible conditions, the sCMOS camera shows a competitive and even better performance than the EMCCD camera, which has long been considered the detector of choice in the field of superresolution imaging. (C) 2010 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. [DOI: 10.1117/1.3505017]