Tiny particles with a big, cool role to play in microscopy

Researchers at UTS, as part of a large international collaboration, have made a breakthrough in the development of compact, low-cost and practical optical microscopy to achieve super-resolution imaging on a scale 10 times smaller than can currently be achieved with conventional microscopy.

This discovery overcomes two obstacles – cost and heat – that limit the development of super-high-resolution imaging for biological and biomedical researchers to be able to do detailed examination of live cells and organisms.  

The research team’s findings, reported in Nature, show that bright luminescent nanoparticles can be switched on and off using a low-power infrared laser beam.

Professor Dayong Jin from UTS, a lead researcher on the project, said the use of a low-powered laser beam was the key to resolving the twin bottleneck problems of cost and heat.

Read the full story in the UTS Newsroom.