Information sufficient segmentation and signal-to-noise ratio in stochastic optical localization nanoscopy.

In stochastic optical localization nanoscopy, it is common practice that a localization algorithm segments the power-effective pixels, which are brighter than a threshold, and discards the rest of a data frame. In this scenario, we investigate the power-effective Fisher information and the power-effective signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with respect to an index rho < 1, indicating that rho fraction of the emitter power is utilized. The rho-power effective Fisher information and the rho-power effective SNR are derived for the Airy and Gaussian point spread functions (PSFs). It is shown that as rho increases, the root mean square error of the Fisher information sharply drops to its lower bound, approximately rho = 0.8 for both PSFs. This result suggests that the 80%-power effective data in the emitter localization are information sufficient, and the 80%-power effective SNR is appropriate to indicate the quality of a data frame in the presence of noise. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America