Knowledge Base

Have you ever wondered how superresolution microscopy works? What’s the difference between STED, STORM, and MINFLUX? What is “resolution” and what is a “PSF”? What is so special about the STEDYCON? Read on to find out.

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Everything about microscopes, dyes, and superresolution

How does STED work?

A donut-shaped STED beam confines the fluorescence to a sub-diffraction sized area

You have heard of STED but don’t have a clear idea how it overcomes the diffraction-limited resolution of confocal microscopes? You maybe even think it to be somewhat complicated? In fact, it isn’t. It’s just physics, smartly applied. Details >

The donut-shaped de-excitation beam is one of the most important practical ingredients for superresolution STED microscopy. But how do you put a hole into a beam of light? Surprisingly, it’s not that difficult if you know how to do it, but it’s very difficult to get it right in practice. Details >

What has to be inside a STED microscope to achieve superresolution? How does its hardware differ from a confocal setup? (Hint: Not very much.) And what does that mean for the user? (Many good things.) Is handling a STED system any more complicated than using a confocal? (Not really.) Important questions – here are some in-depth answers. Details >

How to correct for aberrations in light microscopy

How to correct for aberrations in light microscopy. Deformable mirror vs correction collar!

Aberrations can give microscopists a hard time. They belong to microscopy like pathogens belong to life. There are ways to bring diverted rays back on track, but some are better than others. The question is: deformable mirror or correction collar? Details >