A super photostable fluorescent dye that survives in repeated STED laser irradiation

Abstract

Super resolution microscopy enables us to acquire images possessing much higher resolution than optical diffraction unit. Photostability of fluorescent dye is a definitely important property in super resolution microscopy, although required properties to fluorescence dye are varied and specialized dependent on the different super resolution technologies. Especially for STED imaging, exceptional photostability surviving in intense STED laser is required for repeated super resolution imaging and development of suitable fluorescence dye is awaited. Here, we introduce a phosphole oxide based fluorescent dye possessing unprecedented photostability sufficient for continuous STED imaging.