Optical measurement of picometer displacements of transparent microscopic objects.

An optical laser differential interferometer, based on a modified differential interference contrast microscope, has been developed to measure the thermal motion of microscopic protrusions (stereocilia) that are the sites of mechanoelectrical transduction in auditory hair cells. The measurement sensitivity was limited at high frequencies mainly by shot noise, at intermediate frequencies by acoustic interference, and at low frequencies by thermal drift. The power spectral density of the instrumental noise was found to be as low as 1. pm/ radicalHz in the shot noise regime. We could, thus, measure the Brownian motion of hair bundles over the frequency range from 1 Hz-100 kHz. Experimental data that test and demonstrate the sensitivity and spatial discrimination of the instrument were found to be in agreement with theoretical estimates.

[1]  C F Quate,et al.  Imaging crystals, polymers, and processes in water with the atomic force microscope. , 1989, Science.

[2]  S Kamimura,et al.  Direct measurement of nanometric displacement under an optical microscope. , 1987, Applied optics.

[3]  The image of a single point in microscopes of large numerical aperture , 1982, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

[4]  Jeffrey H. Shapiro,et al.  Squeezed states in phase-sensing interferometers , 1984 .

[5]  S. Chu,et al.  Observation of a single-beam gradient force optical trap for dielectric particles. , 1986, Optics letters.

[6]  H. Berg.  How to track bacteria. , 1971, The Review of scientific instruments.

[7]  G. B. David,et al.  The zeiss-Nomarski differential interference equipment for transmitted-light microscopy. , 1969, Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftliche Mikroskopie und mikroskopische Technik.

[8]  W. Heisenberg.  The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory , 1930 .

[9]  R. Fettiplace,et al.  The mechanical properties of ciliary bundles of turtle cochlear hair cells. , 1985, The Journal of physiology.

[10]  P. Dragsten,et al.  Auditory Membrane Vibrations: Measurements at Sub-Angstrom Levels by Optical Heterodyne Spectroscopy , 1974, Science.

[11]  A. Ashkin,et al.  Optical trapping and manipulation of single cells using infrared laser beams , 1987, Nature.

[12]  D. Walls.  Squeezed states of light , 1983, Nature.

[13]  E. Wolf,et al.  Electromagnetic diffraction in optical systems, II. Structure of the image field in an aplanatic system , 1959, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

[14]  Jeffrey H. Shapiro,et al.  Degenerate four-wave mixing as a possible source of squeezed-state light , 1984 .

[15]  Ludwig Boltzmann,et al.  Ableitung des Stefan'schen Gesetzes, betreffend die Abhängigkeit der Wärmestrahlung von der Temperatur aus der electromagnetischen Lichttheorie , 1884 .

[16]  A. J. Hudspeth,et al.  Mechanical stimulation and micromanipulation with piezoelectric bimorph elements , 1980, Journal of Neuroscience Methods.

[17]  E. Wolf,et al.  ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF THE FOCUS OF A COHERENT BEAM , 1965 .

[18]  J. Ashmore.  A fast motile response in guinea‐pig outer hair cells: the cellular basis of the cochlear amplifier. , 1987, The Journal of physiology.

[19]  C. Sheppard,et al.  Theory and practice of scanning optical microscopy , 1984 .

[20]  A. Ashkin,et al.  Optical trapping and manipulation of viruses and bacteria. , 1987, Science.

[21]  A. Hudspeth,et al.  Hair cells: transduction, tuning, and transmission in the inner ear. , 1988, Annual review of cell biology.

[22]  A J Hudspeth,et al.  Mechanical properties of sensory hair bundles are reflected in their Brownian motion measured with a laser differential interferometer. , 1989, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[23]  J. Ashmore,et al.  Stiffness of sensory hair bundles in the sacculus of the frog , 1986, Hearing Research.

[24]  Structural studies of adenovirus type 2 and an assembly mutant. , 1986, Biophysical journal.

[25]  H. Callen,et al.  Irreversibility and Generalized Noise , 1951 .

[26]  C. Perron.  Relativistic 238U ion tracks in olivine and cosmic-ray track studies , 1984, Nature.

[27]  B. M. Johnstone,et al.  Basilar Membrane Vibration Examined with the M�ssbauer Technique , 1967, Science.

[28]  A J Hudspeth,et al.  Mechanical relaxation of the hair bundle mediates adaptation in mechanoelectrical transduction by the bullfrog's saccular hair cell. , 1987, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[29]  M. Sheetz,et al.  Tracking kinesin-driven movements with nanometre-scale precision , 1988, Nature.

[30]  N. Bobroff.  Position measurement with a resolution and noise‐limited instrument , 1986 .

[31]  P Muralt,et al.  Wide-range, low-operating-voltage, bimorph STM: Application as potentiometer , 1986, IBM J. Res. Dev..

[32]  P. Hohenberg,et al.  Codimension-2 bifurcations for convection in binary fluid mixtures , 1984 .

[33]  Graded and nonlinear mechanical properties of sensory hairs in the mammalian hearing organ , 1984, Nature.

[34]  Webb,et al.  Thermal-noise-limited transduction observed in mechanosensory receptors of the inner ear. , 1989, Physical review letters.

[35]  Simultaneous Recording of Fluctuations of Hair-Bundle Deflection and Intracellular Voltage in Saccular Hair Cells , 1989 .

[36]  D. L. Johnson,et al.  Elastodynamics of gels , 1982 .