High resolution fluorescent bio-imaging with electron beam excitation.

We have developed electron beam excitation assisted (EXA) optical microscope[1-3], and demonstrated its resolution higher than 50 nm. In the microscope, a light source in a few nanometers size is excited by focused electron beam in a luminescent film. The microscope makes it possible to observe dynamic behavior of living biological specimens in various surroundings, such as air or liquids. Scan speed of the nanometric light source is faster than that in conventional near-field scanning optical microscopes. The microscope enables to observe optical constants such as absorption, refractive index, polarization, and their dynamic behavior on a nanometric scale. The microscope opens new microscopy applications in nano-technology and nano-science.Figure 1(a) shows schematic diagram of the proposed EXA microscope. An electron beam is focused on a luminescent film. A specimen is put on the luminescent film directly. The inset in Fig. 1(a) shows magnified image of the luminescent film and the specimen. Nanometric light source is excited in the luminescent film by the focused electron beam. The nanometric light source illuminates the specimen, and the scattered or transmitted radiation is detected with a photomultiplier tube (PMT). The light source is scanned by scanning of the focused electron beam in order to construct on image. Figure 1(b) shows a luminescence image of the cells acquired with the EXA microscope, and Fig. 1(c) shows a phase contrast microscope image. Cells were observed in culture solution without any treatments, such as fixation and drying. The shape of each cell was clearly recognized and some bright spots were observed in cells. We believe that the bright spots indicated with arrows were auto-fluorescence of intracellular granules and light- grey regions were auto-fluorescence of cell membranes. It is clearly demonstrated that the EXA microscope is useful tool for observation of living biological cells in physiological conditions.jmicro;63/suppl_1/i16/DFU090F1F1DFU090F1Fig. 1.(a) Optical setup of EXA microscpe, and observation results of of living MARCO-expressing CHO cells with (b) EXA microscope and (c) phase contrast microscope. We proposed the EXA microscope as a technique with high spatial resolution beyond the diffraction limit of light. A spatial resolution greater than 100 nm was achieved for the EXA microscope and the dynamic behavior of moving nanoparticles in water was observed by time lapse imaging. We also demonstrated luminescence image of living cells in culture solution without any treatments.