Roadmap on Label-Free Super-Resolution Imaging.

Label-free super-resolution (LFSR) imaging relies on light-scattering processes in nanoscale objects without a need for fluorescent (FL) staining required in super-resolved FL microscopy. The objectives of this Roadmap are to present a comprehensive vision of the developments, the state-of-the-art in this field, and to discuss the resolution boundaries and hurdles which need to be overcome to break the classical diffraction limit of the LFSR imaging. The scope of this Roadmap spans from the advanced interference detection techniques, where the diffraction-limited lateral resolution is combined with unsurpassed axial and temporal resolution, to techniques with true lateral super-resolution capability which are based on understanding resolution as an information science problem, on using novel structured illumination, near-field scanning, and nonlinear optics approaches, and on designing superlenses based on nanoplasmonics, metamaterials, transformation optics, and microsphere-assisted approaches. To this end, this Roadmap brings under the same umbrella researchers from the physics and biomedical optics communities in which such studies have often been developing separately. The ultimate intent of this paper is to create a vision for the current and future developments of LFSR imaging based on its physical mechanisms and to create a great opening for the series of articles in this field.

Simulating photon-transport in uniform media using the radiative transport equation: a study using the Neumann-series approach.

We present the implementation, validation, and performance of a Neumann-series approach for simulating light propagation at optical wavelengths in uniform media using the radiative transport equation (RTE). The RTE is solved for an anisotropic-scattering medium in a spherical harmonic basis for a diffuse-optical-imaging setup. The main objectives of this paper are threefold: to present the theory behind the Neumann-series form for the RTE, to design and develop the mathematical methods and the software to implement the Neumann series for a diffuse-optical-imaging setup, and, finally, to perform an exhaustive study of the accuracy, practical limitations, and computational efficiency of the Neumann-series method. Through our results, we demonstrate that the Neumann-series approach can be used to model light propagation in uniform media with small geometries at optical wavelengths.