Fluorescent Materials for Super‐Resolution Imaging

This chapter summarizes the progress in the development of a variety of fluorescent probes for super-resolution microscopy (SRM) imaging studies while highlighting the associated merits and demerits. The fluorescent probes developed or utilized for different far-field SRM imaging studies can be broadly divided into four main categories: fluorescent proteins, organic fluorescent probes, fluorescent metal complexes, and fluorescent nanoparticles/quantum dots/carbon nanotubes. The ability to resolve subcellular biological structures at the nanoscale using stimulated emission depletion (STED) nanoscopy is highly dependent on the availability and choice of the appropriate fluorescent materials. Since the fluorescent materials used for STED imaging need to be highly photostable, apart from exhibiting appropriate fluorogenic signatures and biocompatibility, several novel transition metal-based fluorescent complexes have been recently developed with excellent photophysical properties for application to STED imaging studies.