STED microscopy resolves nanoparticle assemblies

We demonstrate the ability of stimulated emission depletion ( STED) microscopy, a far-field fluorescence imaging technique with diffraction-unlimited resolution, to reveal the spatial order of fluorescent nanoparticles. Unlike its confocal counterpart, here STED microscopy resolves the arrangements of densely packed 40 nm beads, supramolecular aggregates in a cell membrane, and colloidal nanoparticles. Both raw and linearly deconvolved data disclose unprecedented details of both biological and non-biological nanopatterns.