Super-resolution vibrational microscopy by stimulated Raman excited fluorescence

Inspired by the revolutionary impact of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, super-resolution Raman imaging has been long pursued because of its much higher chemical specificity than the fluorescence counterpart. However, vibrational contrasts are intrinsically less sensitive compared with fluorescence, resulting in only mild resolution enhancement beyond the diffraction limit even with strong laser excitation power. As such, it is still a great challenge to achieve biocompatible super-resolution vibrational imaging in the optical far-field. In 2019 Stimulated Raman Excited Fluorescence (SREF) was discovered as an ultrasensitive vibrational spectroscopy that combines the high chemical specificity of Raman scattering and the superb sensitivity of fluorescence detection. Herein we developed a novel super-resolution vibrational imaging method by harnessing SREF as the contrast mechanism. We first identified the undesired role of anti-Stokes fluorescence background in preventing direct adoption of super-resolution fluorescence technique. We then devised a frequency-modulation (FM) strategy to remove the broadband backgrounds and achieved high-contrast SREF imaging. Assisted by newly synthesized SREF dyes, we realized multicolor FM-SREF imaging with nanometer spectral resolution. Finally, by integrating stimulated emission depletion (STED) with background-free FM-SREF, we accomplished high-contrast super-resolution vibrational imaging with STED-FM-SREF whose spatial resolution is only determined by the signal-to-noise ratio. In our proof-of-principle demonstration, more than two times of resolution improvement is achieved in biological systems with moderate laser excitation power, which shall be further refined with optimized instrumentation and imaging probes. With its super resolution, high sensitivity, vibrational contrast, and mild laser excitation power, STED-FM-SREF microscopy is envisioned to aid a wide variety of applications.