The noise-limited-resolution for stimulated emission depletion microscopy of diffusing particles

With recent developments in microscopy, such as stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, far-field imaging at resolutions better than the diffraction limit is now a commercially available technique. Here, we show that, in the special case of a diffusive regime, the noise-limited resolution of STED imaging is independent of the saturation intensity of the fluorescent label. Thermal motion limits the signal integration time, which, for a given excited-state lifetime, limits the total number of photons available for detection.