Emerging super-resolution fluorescence imaging strategies for semiconductor materials

Semiconductor metrology and inspection increasingly require characterization techniques capable of resolving nanoscale structures while simultaneously providing chemical and functional information under realistic operating conditions. Although electron and scanning probe microscopy techniques offer outstanding spatial resolution, they often suffer from limited chemical specificity, destructive sample preparation, or poor compatibility with real-time measurements. Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (SRM), originally developed for biological imaging, has recently emerged as a promising complementary approach that combines nanoscale spatial resolution with molecular specificity and functional imaging. However, SRM has traditionally relied on fluorescent labels or genetically encoded fluorescent proteins; therefore, its application to semiconductor materials has remained limited, as these materials generally lack suitable fluorescent signals. Recent advances in fluorescence generation strategies have begun to overcome this challenge, extending SRM beyond biological imaging to semiconductor characterization. This minireview classifies recent developments into four categories based on the mechanism of fluorescence generation: fluorophore labeling, transient adsorption, intrinsic luminescence, and fluorogenic reaction imaging. Their underlying principles, advantages, and limitations are compared, which highlight recent progress and emerging directions in super-resolution fluorescence imaging of semiconductor materials. Continued advances in fluorescence generation strategies are expected to establish SRM as a powerful tool for quantitative semiconductor metrology, real-time characterization under operating conditions, and functional imaging, thereby providing new opportunities for understanding, designing, and optimizing next-generation semiconductor materials and devices.