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The cross section is a significant parameter for fluorescence protein and determination of acceptor-to-donor cross section ratio for two-photon excitation in living cells is the vital issue for two-photon excitation FRET quantification. In this study, Hela cells were labeled with FPs that acceptor-to-donor concentration ratio is 1 to 1 and acceptor-to-donor cross section ratio ranged from 700nm to 960nm was obtained by emission spectral unmixing with independent excitation crosstalk correction. The results show that acceptor-to-donor cross section ratio declines with the excitation wavelength from 700nm to 790nm and then increases inversely from 790nm to 960nm. This method can quickly determine the cross section without any additional references, which could provide a powerful and convenient tool for measuring acceptor-to-donor cross section ratio by two-photon excitation in living cells.

Far-field fluorescence microscopy has made great progress in the spatial resolution, limited by light diffraction, since the super-resolution imaging technology appeared. And stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy and structured illumination microscopy (SIM) can be grouped into one class of the super-resolution imaging technology, which use pattern illumination strategy to circumvent the diffraction limit. We simulated the images of the beads of SIM imaging, the intensity distribution of STED excitation light and depletion light in order to observe effects of the polarized light on imaging quality. Compared to fixed linear polarization, circularly polarized light is more suitable for SIM on reconstructed image. And right-handed circular polarization (CP) light is more appropriate for both the excitation and depletion light in STED system. Therefore the right-handed CP light would be the best candidate when the SIM and STED are combined into one microscope. Good understanding of the polarization will provide a reference for the patterned illumination experiment to achieve better resolution and better image quality.