APPARATUS FOR IMAGING SINGLE MOLECULES

摘要

The Single Molecule Scanner is essentially a microscope with the purpose of imaging large areas (e.g. 1cm²) at an outstanding spatial resolution (e.g., 400nm diffraction-limited resolution at 130nm pixel resolution). The applicant's improved scanner may use some typical design features present in most state-of-the-art microscopes. However, their interplay is finaly tuned and the scanner incorporates several additional features which are not known from the prior art. In particular, a first aspect of the present invention provides a scanner for imaging single molecules and having a magnification, comprising: a dry microscope objective defining an optical axis and having a numerical aperture of greater than or equal to 0.4.