Tuesday  |  Virtual Track 4  |  09:00 AM–09:12 AM

#11043, Super Resolution Optical Microscopy to Detect Virus (SARS-CoV-2) in Real Time

Observation of objects in the nanometric range is at the cutting edge of current technology and is of paramount importance in detecting viruses like covid-19. The authors in 2005 presented a new methodology to obtain metrological information on prismatic crystals and spheres in the ranges of 10 to 100 nanometers that achieved a level of resolution of 0.1 nm with the accuracy of ±3 nm comparing experimental results with theoretical sizes. The original observation system relies on total internal reflection of laser light to produce an evanescent field. Laser light acts as feeding illumination in a laser structure. It excites objects to generate light depending on particular molecular structure of observed object composition, geometry and dimensions. A fundamental tool in this microscopic system is the presence of optically generated gratings. These gratings provide carriers encoding the sought information. A key optical element in the preceding examples, is a small spherical lens 6 microns in diameter. It has a dual role: (i) produces a cavity with geometric configuration such to generate self-propagating wavefronts that make it possible to observe the near field surrounding observed object in the far field; (ii) acts as a relay lens that transmits near field information to far field. A signal decoding software makes it feasible extracting from recorded images the information contained in them and reconstruct observed objects. Since initial papers, authors make use of super-resolution evanescent fields in many technical applications and in larger fields of view, utilizing several optical configurations different from the one that has briefly described.
The previously outlined approach to optical microscopy can be extended to a field of currently huge scientific interest and massive social value, the quick and accurate detection of the presence of viruses in human saliva, in real time at a fair cost.
On the basis of the previously developed system to observe nano crystals and spheres of diameters of the same order of magnitude as the covid-19 a super resolution optical has been designed. To get a more compact flexible system, the optical microscope utilized in the initial system is replaced by a digital microscope. An important characteristic of selected system is the use of artificial intelligence software to make feasible real time detection. The detection process will be followed by a second step to measure volume content of the virus.

Cesar Sciammarella   Illinois Institute of Technology
Luciano Lamberti   Politecnico di Bari
Federico Sciammarella   MXD