Achieving High Spatial Resolution Surface Plasmon Resonance Microscopy with Image Reconstruction

Surface plasmon resonance microscopy (SPRM) is a powerful platform for biomedical imaging and molecular binding kinetics analysis. However, the spatial resolution of SPRM along the plasmon propagation direction (longitudinal) is determined by the decaying length of the plasmonic wave, which can be as large as tens of microns. Different methods have been proposed to improve the spatial resolution, but each at the expense of decreased sensitivity or temporal resolution. Here we present a method to achieve high spatial resolution SPRM based on deconvolution of complex field. The method does not require additional optical setup and improves the spatial resolution in the longitudinal direction. We applied the method to image nanoparticles and achieved close-to-diffraction limit resolution in both longitudinal and transverse directions.