Mercury arc lamp based super-resolution imaging with conventional fluorescence microscopes

We present an implementation of localization based three-dimensional super-resolution imaging on a regular microscope. We retain the original arc lamp as the photoactivation light source, and incorporate an inexpensive diode laser for imaging. As alterations to the standard microscope is minimal, this optical setup can be easily adapted in a typical research laboratory and even undergraduate teaching experiments, providing an inexpensive system for students and research scientists who require such super resolution capabilities. With this simple design, a spatial resolution of better than 40 nm at a reasonable frame rate has been achieved, adequate for most routine applications.