Counter-Propagating Evanescent Illumination Super-Resolution Chip

Super-resolution chip (SRC) made of fluorescent polymer film and polygon film waveguide can realize subdiffraction imaging. However, the propagation losses of evanescent waves impose a serious restriction on imaging performance. Meanwhile, the required redundant raw images hinder the imaging speed. Multiple-azimuths evanescent illumination at the same time can efficiently increase the illumination intensity and uniformity, and reduce the number of required raw images. But, the experimental realization is impeded by the complex spatial frequency mixing problem. Herein, an SRC microscopy method with counter-propagating evanescent illumination is demonstrated, which circumvents the influence of complex spatial frequency mixing, and efficiently enhances the reconstructed results. Meanwhile, the proposed method reduces the number of required raw images by half and saves the image acquisition time, which benefits the imaging speed enhancement of the SRC microscopy system and promotes its future practical application.