Three-Dimensional Particle Tracking via Bifocal Imaging

Abstract

We introduce a bifocal imaging method that enables three-dimensional (3D) tracking of both fluorescent and nonfluorescent particles. We accomplish this by simultaneously imaging a focused plane, for in-plane position (x,y), and a defocused plane, for out-of-plane position (z), of a molecule using a single CCD camera. We applied our method to several systems including in vivo melanosome tracking and phagocytosed fluorescent bead tracking. We have achieved 2−5 nm accuracy with a 2−50 ms time resolution.