Non-Diffracting Light Wave: Fundamentals and Biomedical Applications

The light propagation in the medium normally experiences diffraction, dispersion, and scattering. Studying the light propagation is a century-old problem as the photons may attenuate and wander. We start from the fundamental concepts of the non-diffracting beams, and examples of the non-diffracting beams include but are not limited to the Bessel beam, Airy beam, and Mathieu beam. Then, we discuss the biomedical applications of the non-diffracting beams, focusing on linear and nonlinear imaging, e.g., light-sheet fluorescence microscopy and two-photon fluorescence microscopy. The non-diffracting photons may provide scattering resilient imaging and fast speed in the volumetric two-photon fluorescence microscopy. The non-diffracting Bessel beam and the Airy beam have been successfully used in volumetric imaging applications with faster speed since a single 2D scan provides information in the whole volume that adopted 3D scan in traditional scanning microscopy. This is a significant advancement in imaging applications with sparse sample structures, especially in neuron imaging. Moreover, the fine axial resolution is enabled by the self-accelerating Airy beams combined with deep learning algorithms. These additional features to the existing microscopy directly realize a great advantage over the field, especially for recording the ultrafast neuronal activities, including the calcium voltage signal recording. Nonetheless, with the illumination of dual Bessel beams at non-identical orders, the transverse resolution can also be improved by the concept of image subtraction, which would provide clearer images in neuronal imaging.

Automated summary

The propagation of light in a medium involves diffraction, dispersion, and scattering effects. Research on non-diffracting beams, especially in biomedical applications, can provide fast imaging and scattering-resilient imaging, which is particularly important for sparse sample structures.