Fig. 2
From: Solid immersion microscopy images cells under cryogenic conditions with 12 nm resolution
Comparison of collection efficiency in superSIL and standard objectives. a Models and simulations of collection efficiency in conventional fluorescence microscopy using dry objective lenses and superSIL microscopy. Schematics of ray propagation from a single fluorophore (blue dots) in conventional (top left) and superSIL microscopy (top right). The fluorescence emission distribution is depicted by the blue curves. Collection efficiency versus NAs from simulations is plotted in the graph at the bottom, in which the solid and dashed curves illustrate conventional and superSIL microscopy cases, respectively. b Representative images of 100 nm diameter fluorescent beads taken using the superSIL, 50 × 0.9 NA objective and 100 × 0.55 NA objective on the same microscope platform with identical filters, camera settings and laser illumination power. Scale bars: 2 µm. c The box chart showing the distribution of intensities from multiple beads fitted with Gaussian profiles, corrected for changes in laser power density arising from the different magnifications. The box extends from the lower to upper quartile values of the data, with a black line at the median. The median of intensity was 5573, 3162 and 862 in the case of superSIL, 0.9 NA and 0.55 NA objective, respectively. The whiskers extend from the box to show the range of data falling within the 1.5× inter-quartile range from the quartiles
