Performance improvement in nanoparticle-assisted stimulated-emission-depletion nanoscopy

We revisit stimulated-emission-depletion (STED) nanoscopy theory for the case when metal nanoparticles are used to improve the nanoscope's performance. We show that the improved performance can be estimated in a simple way with no need for heavy computations. We then systematically study the dependence of the improved performance on the field and decay rate enhancements, as well as on the STED pulse and time-gating durations. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4735319]