For new microscope images, less is more

Compression is generally thought of as something to do to data after it has been collected, but mathematicians have recently figured out a way to use similar principles to drastically reduce the amount of data that needs to be gathered in the first place.

Now scientists from the University of Houston and Rice University in Houston, Texas have utilized this new theory, called compression sensing, to build a microscope that can make images of molecular vibrations with higher resolution and in less time than conventional methods. The microscope provides chemists with a powerful new experimental tool.

The main concept behind compressive sensing is something called “sparsity.” If a signal is “sparse,” the most important information is concentrated in select parts of the signal, with the rest containing redundant information that can be mathematically represented by zero or near-zeros numbers. The sparse signal that the Texas researchers were looking at came from a sum frequency generation (SFG) microscope, which shines two different frequency lasers at a surface and then measures the return signal to gather information about the vibration and orientation of the molecules at the surface boundary.

Traditional SFG microscopes scan a sample by systematically moving across it, but the resolution of these traditional scans is limited because as resolution increases the strength of the signal decreases. Instead of systematically scanning the boundary, the compressive sensing microscope gathered a set of pseudo-randomly positioned sampling points. If the important information was captured in the sample, then a series of mathematical steps could be used to construct the entire image. The researchers tested their microscope by imaging stripes of gold deposited on a silicon background and then coated with a chemical called octadecanethiol. The device sensed the stretching of the carbon-hydrogen bonds in the octadecanethiol layer and created images with 16 times more pixel density than was possible with the traditional scanning techniques. The new microscope could find applications in biomolecular imaging and the scientific study of interfaces.

Article: “Sum Frequency Generation-Compressive Sensing Microscope” is accepted for publication in the Journal of Chemical Physics.

Authors: Xiaojun Cai (1), Bian Hu (1), Ting Sun (2), Kevin F. Kelly (2), and Steven Baldelli (1).

(1) Department of Chemistry, University of Houston
(2) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University

Media Contact

Catherine Meyers EurekAlert!

More Information:

http://www.aip.org

All latest news from the category: Physics and Astronomy

This area deals with the fundamental laws and building blocks of nature and how they interact, the properties and the behavior of matter, and research into space and time and their structures.

innovations-report provides in-depth reports and articles on subjects such as astrophysics, laser technologies, nuclear, quantum, particle and solid-state physics, nanotechnologies, planetary research and findings (Mars, Venus) and developments related to the Hubble Telescope.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors