"Optics beyond the Abbe limit: molecular resolution imaging by farfield light microscopy."

New developments in far-field light microscopy made possible to radically overcome the diffraction limit (ca. 200 nm laterally, 600 nm along the optical axis) of conventional far field microscopy. Presently, three principal “nanoscopy” families have been formed: “Nanoscopy” based on highly focused laser beams; nanoscopy based on Structured Illumination Excitation (SIE); and nanoscopy allowing superresolution even in the case of homogeneous excitation. With such techniques, it has become possible to analyze the spatial distribution of fluorescent molecules on surfaces and in biostructures with a greatly increased light optical resolution down to a few nanometers, corresponding to 1/100 of the exciting wavelength, and with single target/molecule localization accuracies down to a few Angstrom.