Laser-diode-stimulated emission depletion microscopy

We report subdiffraction resolution in far-field fluorescence microscopy through laser-diode-stimulated emission depletion of molecular markers. The diode-generated focal intensities lead to a resolution improvement by similar to45% in both lateral directions. Excitation and stimulated emission are performed with electronically synchronized diode pulses of 50-70 ps and 300-400 ps duration, respectively. The subdiffraction resolution is utilized to resolve neighboring individual molecules. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.