Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) has been widely applied to investigate intricate biological dynamics due to its outstanding super-resolution imaging speed. Incorporating compressive sensing into SIM brings the possibility to further improve the super-resolution imaging speed. Nevertheless, the recovery of the super-resolution information from the compressed measurement remains challenging in experiments. Here, we report structured illumination microscopy with complementary encoding-based compressive imaging (CECI-SIM) to realize faster super-resolution imaging. Compared to the nine measurements to obtain a super-resolution image in a conventional SIM, CECI-SIM can achieve a super-resolution image by three measurements; therefore, a threefold improvement in the imaging speed can be achieved. This faster imaging ability in CECI-SIM is experimentally verified by observing tubulin and actin in mouse embryonic fibroblast cells. This work provides a feasible solution for high-speed super-resolution imaging, which would bring significant applications in biomedical research.

Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) has been widely applied in the superresolution imaging of subcellular dynamics in live cells. Higher spatial resolution is expected for the observation of finer structures. However, further increasing spatial resolution in SIM under the condition of strong background and noise levels remains challenging. Here, we report a method to achieve deep resolution enhancement of SIM by combining an untrained neural network with an alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) framework, i.e., ADMM-DRE-SIM. By exploiting the implicit image priors in the neural network and the Hessian prior in the ADMM framework associated with the optical transfer model of SIM, ADMM-DRE-SIM can further realize the spatial frequency extension without the requirement of training datasets. Moreover, an image degradation model containing the convolution with equivalent point spread function of SIM and additional background map is utilized to suppress the strong background while keeping the structure fidelity. Experimental results by imaging tubulins and actins show that ADMM-DRE-SIM can obtain the resolution enhancement by a factor of ∼1.6 compared to conventional SIM, evidencing the promising applications of ADMM-DRE-SIM in superresolution biomedical imaging.

Various super-resolution microscopy techniques have been presented to explore fine structures of biological specimens. However, the super-resolution capability is often achieved at the expense of reducing imaging speed by either point scanning or multiframe computation. The contradiction between spatial resolution and imaging speed seriously hampers the observation of high-speed dynamics of fine structures. To overcome this contradiction, here we propose and demonstrate a temporal compressive super-resolution microscopy (TCSRM) technique. This technique is to merge an enhanced temporal compressive microscopy and a deep-learning-based super-resolution image reconstruction, where the enhanced temporal compressive microscopy is utilized to improve the imaging speed, and the deep-learning-based super-resolution image reconstruction is used to realize the resolution enhancement. The high-speed super-resolution imaging ability of TCSRM with a frame rate of 1200 frames per second (fps) and spatial resolution of 100 nm is experimentally demonstrated by capturing the flowing fluorescent beads in microfluidic chip. Given the outstanding imaging performance with high-speed super-resolution, TCSRM provides a desired tool for the studies of high-speed dynamical behaviors in fine structures, especially in the biomedical field.

In ultrafast optical imaging, it is critical to obtain the spatial structure, temporal evolution, and spectral composition of the object with snapshots in order to better observe and understand unrepeatable or irreversible dynamic scenes. However, so far, there are no ultrafast optical imaging techniques that can simultaneously capture the spatial–temporal–spectral five-dimensional (5D) information of dynamic scenes. To break the limitation of the existing techniques in imaging dimensions, we develop a spectral-volumetric compressed ultrafast photography (SV-CUP) technique. In our SV-CUP, the spatial resolutions in the x, y and z directions are, respectively, 0.39, 0.35, and 3 mm with an 8.8 mm × 6.3 mm field of view, the temporal frame interval is 2 ps, and the spectral frame interval is 1.72 nm. To demonstrate the excellent performance of our SV-CUP in spatial–temporal–spectral 5D imaging, we successfully measure the spectrally resolved photoluminescent dynamics of a 3D mannequin coated with CdSe quantum dots. Our SV-CUP brings unprecedented detection capabilities to dynamic scenes, which has important application prospects in fundamental research and applied science.

The ability to control the energy transfer in rare-earth ion-doped luminescent materials is very important for various related application areas such as color display, bio-labeling, and new light sources. Here, a phase-shaped femtosecond laser field is first proposed to control the transfer of multiphoton excited energy from Tm3+ to Yb3+ ions in co-doped glass ceramics. Tm3+ ions are first sensitized by femtosecond laser-induced multiphoton absorption, and then a highly efficient energy transfer occurs between the highly excited state Tm3+ sensitizers and the ground-state Yb3+ activators. The laser peak intensity and polarization dependences of the laser-induced luminescence intensities are shown to serve as proof of the multiphoton excited energy transfer pathway. The efficiency of the multiphoton excited energy transfer can be efficiently enhanced or completely suppressed by optimizing the spectral phase of the femtosecond laser with a feedback control strategy based on a genetic algorithm. A (1+2) resonance-mediated three-photon excitation model is presented to explain the experimental observations. This study provides a new way to induce and control the energy transfer in rare-earth ion-doped luminescent materials, and should have a positive contribution to the development of related applications.

The ability to manipulate the valence state conversion of rare-earth ions is crucial for their applications in color displays, optoelectronic devices, laser sources, and optical memory. The conventional femtosecond laser pulse has been shown to be a well-established tool for realizing the valence state conversion of rare-earth ions, although the valence state conversion efficiency is relatively low. Here, we first propose a femtosecond laser pulse shaping technique for improving the valence state conversion efficiency of rare-earth ions. Our experimental results demonstrate that the photoreduction efficiency from Sm3+ to Sm2+ in Sm3+-doped sodium aluminoborate glass using a π phase step modulation can be comparable to that using a transform-limited femtosecond laser field, while the peak laser intensity is decreased by about 63%, which is very beneficial for improving the valence state conversion efficiency under the laser-induced damage threshold of the glass sample. Furthermore, we also theoretically develop a (2+1) resonance-mediated three-photon absorption model to explain the modulation of the photoreduction efficiency from Sm3+ to Sm2+ under the π-shaped femtosecond laser field.