Rapid Fire
Diffraction Limit
- 05 Nov 2024
- 2 min read
The resolution limit of an optical instrument that uses light is constrained by the diffraction limit, a fundamental boundary that prevents improvement beyond a certain point.
- This diffraction limit affects the instrument’s ability to distinguish between two close objects.
- Due to the diffraction limit, scientists could use the light microscope to see cells but not the proteins inside them or a virus attacking them.
- However, optical microscopes can see inside cells and even things as small as atoms. This technique is called super-resolution microscopy, and it is not bound by the diffraction limit.
- Instead of using light to illuminate the cells in the microscope, special molecules called fluorophores were attached to the cells.
- These molecules glowed when exposed to radiation, allowing the microscope to also detect their surroundings.
- A microscope's resolving ability indicates how well it can distinguish between two closely spaced distant objects, with higher resolution resulting in better performance.
- The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014 was awarded jointly to Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy.
Read More: Glow Scope
