Microscopic apparatus for creating super-resolution images of an organism or biological matter and method for creating super-resolution images of an organism or biological matter using the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016306157-A1
Application number	US-201615077377-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 22, 2016
Priority date	Apr 16, 2015
Publication date	Oct 20, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An optical microscopic apparatus for creating a super-resolution image of an organism or biological matter, the optical microscopic apparatus includes a light source configured to provide visible light including evanescent waves, a hyper-lens unit including a front surface on which a specimen is placed, the hyper-lens unit including a multi-layered structure to convert at least part of the evanescent waves incident on the front surface into propagating waves, an objective lens for collecting visible light emitted from a rear surface of the hyper-lens unit, and an image capturing unit to capture visible light emitted from the objective lens and to create an image of the specimen.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An optical microscopic apparatus for creating a super-resolution image of an organism or biological matter, the optical microscopic apparatus comprising:
a light source configured to provide visible light comprising evanescent waves; a hyper-lens unit comprising a front surface on which a specimen is placed, the hyper-lens unit comprising a multi-layered structure to convert at least part of the evanescent waves incident on the front surface into propagating waves; an objective lens for collecting visible light emitted from a rear surface of the hyper-lens unit; and an image capturing unit to capture visible light emitted from the objective lens and to create an image of the specimen.

2 . The optical microscopic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the specimen comprises a live organism having a size smaller than one half of a shortest wavelength of the visible light, and
wherein the hyper-lens unit is configured to enlarge an image of the live organism, the image of the live organism when created by the image capturing unit being discernible by a human eye.

3 . The optical microscopic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the specimen comprises a neuron having a size about 150 nm, and
wherein the hyper-lens unit is configured to enlarge an image of the neuron, the image of the neuron when created by the image capturing unit being discernible by a human eye.

4 . The optical microscopic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the specimen comprises at least one organism having a size smaller than one half of a shortest wavelength of the visible light, and
wherein the organism is any one of a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), a bacteria, a virus, single molecular cell, and a lipid.

5 . The optical microscopic apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein the hyper-lens unit comprises: a lens layer having the front surface on which the specimen is placed, the front surface having a concave portion; and a substrate layer for supporting the lens layer and covering a back side of the lens layer.

6 . The optical microscopic apparatus of claim 5 ,
wherein the lens layer has a hemisphere shape by alternately layering a plurality of dielectric layers and a plurality of metallic layers.

7 . The optical microscopic apparatus of claim 6 ,
wherein the dielectric layers comprise titanium oxide Ti 3 O 5 , and the metallic layers comprise silver Ag, and wherein the visible light has wavelengths within a range of 400 nm to 500 nm.

8 . The optical microscopic apparatus of claim 6 ,
wherein the dielectric layers comprise silicon Si, and the metallic layers comprise silver Ag.

9 . The optical microscopic apparatus of claim 8 ,
wherein the dielectric layers comprise non-crystalline or amorphous silicon formed through sputtering.

10 . The optical microscopic apparatus of claim 9 ,
wherein each of the dielectric layers and each of the metallic layers have thicknesses less than or equal to 15 nm, respectively.

11 . The optical microscopic apparatus of claim 8 ,
wherein the visible light has wavelengths within a range of 500 nm to 650 nm.

12 . The optical microscopic apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the hyper-lens unit is detachable, and
wherein the specimen is cultured on the front surface of the hyper-lens unit while the hyper-lens unit is immersed in a liquid medium for the specimen.

13 . The optical microscopic apparatus of claim 12 ,
wherein the hyper-lens unit further comprises a protection film covering the lens layer, the protection film comprising a material for preventing liquid permeation, and wherein the specimen is configured to be disposed on the protection film.

14 . The optical microscopic apparatus of claim 13 ,
wherein the protection film comprises a glass layer.

15 . The optical microscopic apparatus of claim 14 ,
wherein the protection film is deposited on the lens layer by an atomic layer deposition.

16 . The optical microscopic apparatus of claim 2 ,
wherein the image capturing unit creates video image data including real time movements of the specimen.

17 . The optical microscopic apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein the visible light incident on the hyper-lens unit is non-polarized visible light.

18 . The optical microscopic apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
immersion oil provided between the objective lens and the hyper-lens unit.

19 . A method for creating a high-resolution image of an organism or biological matter, the method comprising:
immersing a hyper-lens unit in a liquid medium for culturing a specimen on one side of the hyper-lens unit, the hyper-lens unit comprising a multi-layered structure to convert at least part of evanescent waves incident on the one side into propagating waves; creating visible light to illuminate the one side of the hyper-lens unit; collecting light leaving the other side of the hyper-lens unit; and obtaining the collected light to create an image of the specimen.

20 . The method of claim 19 ,
wherein the specimen comprises a live organism having a size smaller than one half of a shortest wavelength of the visible light, and wherein the hyper-lens unit is configured to enlarge an image of the live organism, the image of the live organism when created by an image capturing unit being discernible by a human eye.

Assignees

• Postech Academy-Industry Found

Inventors

• Rho Junsuk
• Kim Minkyung

Classifications

• G02B1/002

  made of materials engineered to provide properties not available in nature, e.g. metamaterials · CPC title

• G02B27/56

  Optics using evanescent waves, i.e. inhomogeneous waves · CPC title

• G02B27/58

  Optics for apodization or superresolution; Optical synthetic aperture systems · CPC title

• G01N33/4833

  of solid biological material, e.g. tissue samples, cell cultures (tissue in vivo A61B5/00; cell suspensions G01N33/48735) · CPC title

• G02B21/361 Primary

  Optical details, e.g. image relay to the camera or image sensor (G02B21/364 takes precedence; illumination details G02B21/06 and subgroups) · CPC title