Large field-of-view super-resolution imaging of endo-cellular structures through micro-beads array

This work presents a super-resolution cell imaging method that uses an array of polystyrene (PS) micro-beads lenses embedded in an elastomer thin film on top of a glass substrate. The micro-beads lens array collects reflected near-field light waves from an object's surface and amplifies the waves to allow the formation of enlarged virtual images of the object. We have shown that object images could be magnified up to at least 5 times of the original scale while having a field-of-view of 6 μm (for a single lens), i.e., visible light images of 200 nm features could be captured using a microscope objective lens of 100x (with overall magnification factor of 1000×). Furthermore, using the micro-beads lens array, NIH/3T3 cell internal structures have been successfully imaged under bright-field conditions, showing a much higher resolution image of the internal structures. In summary, we have shown that micro-beads lens array could resolve sub-diffraction-limit features with an overall field-of-view of at least 5000 μm2. Hence, micro-beads lens array shows promising applications in the rapid imaging of large quantity of biomolecules and internal cell structures with wide field-of-view capability.