Disordered Nanocomposite Islands for Nanospeckle Illumination Microscopy in Wide‐Field Super‐Resolution Imaging

Abstract Nanospeckle illumination microscopy (NanoSIM) based on disordered metallic nanocomposite island substrates is described. The nanoisland substrates can be fabricated without lithographic techniques. Azimuthal scanning illumination of nanoislands creates near‐field distribution that excites an arbitrary number of basis images to produce super‐resolution. Experimental studies of point‐spread images using NanoSIM with 360 basis images obtained by azimuthal scanning find spatial resolution improved by more than three times with an achievable full‐width‐at‐half‐maximum at 81.1 nm on average. The approach is confirmed by imaging aggregated nanobeads and nanoscale distribution of gangliosides on the HeLa cell membrane.