Super-resolved imaging with ultimate time resolution

Precisely and accurately locating point objects is a long-standing common thread in science. Super-resolved imaging of single molecules has revolutionized our view of quasi-static nanostructures $\it{in-vivo}$. A wide-field approach based on localizing individual fluorophores has emerged as a versatile method to surpass the standard resolution limit. In those techniques, the super-resolution is realized by sparse photoactivation and localization together with the statistical analysis based on point spread functions. Nevertheless, the slow temporal resolution of super-resolved imaging severely restricts the utility to the study of live-cell phenomena. Clearly, a major breakthrough to observe fast, nanoscale dynamics needs to be made. Here we present a super-resolved imaging method that achieves the theoretical-limit time resolution. By invoking information theory, we can achieve the robust localization of overlapped light emitters at an order of magnitude faster speed than the conventional super-resolution microscopy. Our method thus provides a general way to uncover hidden structures below the diffraction limit and should have a wide range of applications in all disciplines of science and technology.