ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how the use of light polarization is able to bring one more advantage of optical microscopy. Metal nanostructures are important elements for the design of optical functions in nano-optics, which is the core field in nanoplasmonics. The chapter shows how polarized fluorescence has been able to bring invaluable information on the way molecules and biomolecules are organized, which can be related to important biological functions, in particular, mechanical properties of cells and tissues. Today, fluorescence microscopy is the most widely used tool for in vivo imaging in cells and tissues to address current questions in biology and biomedical optics. The purpose of polarized fluorescence microscopy is to retrieve polarization-dependent modulations of the recorded fluorescent signal, upon the variation of an incoming rotating polarization. Fluorescence polarized microscopy has more recently been applied to the study of the organization of filaments in cells and tissues.
