Single-molecule spectroscopy
Spectroscopic and spectrometric measurements offer valuable chemical and/or structural information, and are in some cases label-free. However, most spectroscopic/spectrometric methods are originally designed for bulk samples and offer limited spatial information. Integrating the high spatial resolution of super-resolution microscopy with spectroscopic/spectrometric methods thus offers intriguing opportunities to probe multiple aspects of a given system.
Our lab have combined single molecule spectroscopy with single molecule localization microscopy to achieve the true-color, spectrally-resolved STORM (SR-STORM) images. Single molecule spatial information use for super-resolution light microscopy can be readily correlated with their spatially well-resolved spectra for rich 4D characterization of various species. This wide-field single-molecule spectroscopy and super-resolution method is also expected to resolve in situ the fluorescence emission spectra of single product molecules of a fluorogenic reaction and help unveil rich, multi-path reaction pathways.
Schematic of the spectrally resolved STORM system. (Top right) Comparison of STORM (left) and diffraction-limited images (right) of merocyanine molecules. (Bottom right) A small region of the concurrently acquired fluorescence images (left) and spectra (right) of three merocyanine molecules in water, obtained in a 33-ms snapshot.
