Super-Resolution Fluorescence Optical Microscopy: Targeted and Stochastic Read-Out Approaches

This chapter is dedicated to a general overview of some of the emerging and well-established super-resolution techniques recently developed and known as optical nanoscopy and localization precision method. Due to the way of probing the sample, one can consider them as targeted and stochastic-based techniques, respectively. Here, we stress how super-resolution is obtained without violating any physical law, i.e., diffraction. The strong idea behind such approaches, operating in fluorescence contrast mode, is related to the ability of controlling the states, bright/dark or red/blue, of the fluorescent labels being used in order to circumvent the diffraction barrier. Super-resolution is achieved by precluding simultaneous emission of spectrally identical emission of adjacent (<diffraction limit distance) molecules. Also, the evolution of such techniques toward applications on thick (>50 micron thickness) samples is discussed along with correlative microscopy approaches involving scanning probe methods. Examples are given within the neuroscience framework.