Conformation and dynamics of single polymer chain studied by optical microscopy techniques beyond the diffraction limit

Aoki, Hiroyuki  

The origin of the unique properties of a polymer material is the large entropic term for a single molecule, which has a chain-like structure with a large molecular weight. For the understanding of the fundamental polymer physics, the conformation of single polymer chain is one of the most important issues; however, it has been difficult to examine the behavior of a single chain because of the limitation of conventional experimental methods. Recent development of optical microscopy allows the fluorescence imaging beyond the diffraction limit of light, and the author's group showed that the conformation and dynamics of a single polymer chain can be examined by the high-resolution fluorescence imaging. This review presents the application of optical microscopy with nanometric spatial resolution to study the polymer materials at the single chain level.