Fig. 5.

Analysis of the functional group distribution on the surface of nanoparticles. a 3D-dSTORM image of a multifunctional nanoparticle is analysed using an EM routine, to obtain the MLE estimate of the functional group locations (solid points). Transparent circles indicate the average estimation error. b Probability density function of NNDs. Plot includes NND distributions for the actual fluorophore locations in a stochastically homogeneous simulation (dashed blue, $N_{\mathrm{NND},\mathrm{sim}}=4.2\times 10^4$), for the estimated locations in a stochastically homogeneous simulation (dashed red, $N_{\mathrm{NND},\mathrm{est}}=4.2\times 10^4$) and the estimated locations in the experimental dSTORM measurement (solid yellow, $N_{\mathrm{NND},\exp }=1.8\times 10^4$). c Cumulative probability distribution of NNDs. Distribution analysis of low- and high-density beads are presented as Supplementary Figs. 14 and 16