Applications of nanostructures in wide-field, label-free super resolution microscopy

Super resolution imaging capable of resolving details beyond the diffraction limit is highly desired in many scientific and application fields, including bio-medicine, nanomaterial science, and opto-electronic integration. Up to now, many different methods have been proposed, among which wide-field, label-free super resolution microscopy is indispensable due to its good applicability to diverse sample types, large field of view (FOV), and high imaging speed. In recent years, nanostructures have made a crucial contribution to the wide-field, label-free subdiffraction microscopy, with various working mechanisms and configuration designs. This review summarizes the recent applications of the nanostructures in the wide-field, label-free super resolution microscopy, with the emphasis on the designs of hyperlens with hyperbolic dispersion, microsphere with “nano-jets”, and nanowire ring illumination microscopy based on spatial frequency shift effect. The bottlenecks of the current techniques and possible solutions are also discussed.