Table 1.
Comparison of imaging techniques. TIRF, total internal reflection fluorescence; HILO, highly inclined laminated optical sheet; STED, stimulated emission depletion; SIM, structured illumination microscopy; PALM, photoactivation localization microscopy; STORM, stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy. For references, see text.
| diffraction-limited |
super-resolution |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| wide-field | confocal | TIRF | HILO | STED | SIM | PALM/STORM | |
| lateral resolution x, y (nm) | 200–250 | 180–250 | 200–250 | 200–250 | ∼50 | ∼50–100 | ∼10–20 |
| axial resolution z (nm) | 500–700 | 500–700 | ∼100 | 500–700 | ∼20–100 | ∼200–300 | ∼20–100 |
| limitations | poor contrast | weaker intensity | surface only | uncertain depth | high phototoxicity | data processing, image reconstruction artefacts | slow, data processing |
| advantages | fast, sensitive | optical sectioning | fast, sensitive | high contrast | fast, no data processing | all probes | highest resolution |