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Optical microscopy uses optic principles to provide detailed images of samples. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek designed the first compound optical microscope in the 17th century to visualize blood cells, bacteria, and yeast cells. In 1830, Joseph Jackson Lister created an essentially modern light microscope. The 20th century saw the development of microscopes with enhanced magnification and resolution.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Design and Building of a Customizable, Single-Objective, Light-Sheet Fluorescence Microscope for the Visualization of Cytoskeleton Networks

Design and Building of a Customizable, Single-Objective, Light-Sheet Fluorescence Microscope for the Visualization of Cytoskeleton Networks

Published on: January 26, 2024

A STED microscope aligned by design.

Dominik Wildanger¹, Johanna Bückers, Volker Westphal

¹Department of NanoBiophotonics, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Am Fassberg 11, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.

|September 3, 2009

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

This study introduces a novel single-path Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) microscope. This design eliminates mechanical drift issues common in dual-beam setups, improving stability and performance.

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Published on: April 8, 2019

Area of Science:

Microscopy
Optical Engineering
Biophysics

Background:

Conventional Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) microscopes often utilize separate optical paths for excitation and STED beams.
This dual-path design necessitates precise co-alignment and is susceptible to mechanical drift, potentially compromising image quality and stability.

Purpose of the Study:

To present a novel single-path STED microscope design.
To demonstrate a method for achieving intrinsic beam alignment, thereby enhancing robustness against mechanical drift.
To validate the performance of the single-path system against established dual-beam configurations.

Main Methods:

Development of a specialized phase plate capable of selectively modulating the STED beam while leaving the excitation beam unaltered.
Integration of this phase plate into a single optical path for both excitation and STED beams.
Comparative performance analysis of the single-path STED microscope against traditional dual-beam systems.

Main Results:

The single-path STED microscope design ensures beams are aligned by design, rendering it insensitive to mechanical drift.
The developed phase plate effectively differentiates STED beam modulation from the excitation beam.
Performance metrics of the single-path setup were found to be comparable to those of previous dual-beam STED microscope designs.

Conclusions:

The single-path STED microscope offers a robust and stable alternative to conventional dual-beam designs.
This innovative approach simplifies microscope construction and maintenance by eliminating the need for constant beam co-alignment.
The presented design maintains high performance, making it suitable for advanced super-resolution imaging applications.