Patent ID: 9360426
Filing Date: 2016-06-07
CPC Classification: G01N,G02B

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: providing activation radiation to a sample, wherein the sample includes phototransformable optical labels (“PTOLs”) distributed in the sample such that separation distances between PTOLs are less than a diffraction limited resolution of a detection objective of imaging optics used to image radiation from the PTOLs, to activate a subset of the PTOLs in the sample; providing excitation radiation to the sample to excite at least some of the activated subset of PTOLs; detecting, with the imaging optics, radiation emitted from the activated and excited PTOLs within the subset of PTOLs; controlling the activation radiation such that adjacent activated PTOLs in a focal plane of the detection objective of the imaging optics are separated by distances generally larger than the diffraction limited resolution of the detection objective; determining locations of the PTOLs based on the detected radiation; and creating a superresolution image of the sample based on the determined locations of the PTOLs.