Described is a method for the
high spatial resolution luminescence microscopy of a sample which is marked with marking molecules which can be activated by way of a switch-over
signal such that only then can they be stimulated to emit luminescent
radiation, wherein the method has the following steps a) introducing the switch-over
signal onto the sample such that only a partial amount of the marking molecules present in the sample are activated, wherein, partial regions exist in the sample, in which partial regions only exactly one molecule, which is activated by the switch-over
signal, is located inside a volume which is delimited by a
diffraction-limited maximum resolution of a detection of luminescent
radiation, b) stimulating the activated molecules to emit luminescent
radiation, c) detecting the luminescent radiation with
diffraction-limited resolution and d) generating image data from the luminescent radiation recorded in step c), wherein the marking molecules, which emit the geometric locations of the luminescent radiation, indicate with a spatial resolution which is increased to above the
diffraction limit, wherein e) the detection of the luminescent radiation in step c) or the generation of the image data in step d) comprises a non-linear increase, which prefers higher intensities, of recorded luminescent radiation in order to enhance the spatial resolution to above the diffraction-limited resolution.