On the sensitivity of Interferometric Cross-Polarisation Microscopy for nanoparticle detection in the near-infrared.

Ben Miles, Elizabeth Robinson, Erik MPH van Dijk, Ian Lindsay, Niek F van Hulst, Henkjan Gersen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)
369 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We address the sensitivity of Interferometric Cross-Polarisation Microscopy by comparing scattering and absorption by spherical 10nm nanoparticles through a combination of modelling and experiment. We show that orthogonality of light in the two polarisation branches of Cross-Polarisation Microscopy ensures that only light that has interacted with a nanoparticle is interferometrically enhanced. As a result background-free shot noise-limited detection is achieved for sub-μW optical powers at the sample. Our modelling in particular shows that in the near-infrared regime, above the plasmon resonance frequency of spherical nanoparticles, the cross-polarisation approach is several orders of magnitude more sensitive than conventional extinction based detection. This enhanced near-infrared sensitivity for spherical nanoparticles is promising for applications requiring low absorption and low power imaging of nanoparticles in cells.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1705-1711
Number of pages7
JournalACS Photonics
Volume2
Issue number12
Early online date3 Nov 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Nov 2015

Keywords

  • Confocal Microscopy
  • Nanoparticle detection
  • Mie Scattering
  • Cross-Polarisation Imaging
  • Gold nanoparticles
  • Background free detection
  • Detection Sensitivity

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