High-speed multimodal super-resolution microscopy with single-photon avalanche diode arrays

This project focuses on developing state-of-the-art microscopy tools that will unravel the fundamental aspects of the structural dynamics and chemical reactivity on the nanosecond to microsecond timescale that were difficult to achieve using existing super-resolution fluorescence microscopy modalities. In particular, researchers plan to unlock the high-speed temporal acquisition capability by integrating single-photon avalanche diode arrays SPADs (developed in Charbon lab) on the existing state-of-the-art widefield super-resolution microscope (developed in the Radenovic lab). This unique paradigm will allow revealing single-molecule dynamics with unprecedented details and in the liquid but as well assess how individual molecules behave, interact and self-organize at solid-liquid interface. This implementation will be first realized on the super-resolution wide-field microscopes. Besides wide field resolution modalities, Radenovic lab has also created a unique setup dedicated to the characterization of Single Photon Emitters, allowing to obtain lifetime, spectral, spatial information, as well as Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance (ODMR) and photon antibunching using Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) data. This unique setup can operate in confocal and widefield modalities, soon allowing imaging in minimal photon fluxes (MINFLUX). As an imaging substrate, scientists have selected hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). hBN is a wide bandgap semiconductor and therefore optically transparent in the visible range, but native defects and engineered optically active defects interacting with different liquids allow exquisite control on the emitter density and their temporal dynamics. In addition to the nonexistent bleaching, the imaging system is ideally positioned to map the different temporal regimes.