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. 2022 Jun;15(6):e202100342.
doi: 10.1002/jbio.202100342. Epub 2022 Feb 25.

Engineering a better light sheet in an axicon-based system using a flattened Gaussian beam of low order

Saiedeh Saghafi  1 , Klaus Becker  1   2 , Franco Gori  3 , Massih Foroughipour  1   2 , Christine Bollwein  4 , Meraaj Foroughipour  1 , Katja Steiger  4 , Wilko Weichert  4 , Hans-Ulrich Dodt  1   2
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Engineering a better light sheet in an axicon-based system using a flattened Gaussian beam of low order

Saiedeh Saghafi et al. J Biophotonics. 2022 Jun.

Abstract

Lasers are fundamental tools in research and development. The shape of an incident laser beam directly affects the results, when it propagates through complex structured meso-aspheric optical elements. In conic-based systems utilizing elements such as axicons, the impact of secondary lobes is mostly overlooked, although the intensity distributions at the central spot and the side-lobes directly affect the beam properties. We investigate the interaction of two axicons (160° and 170°) with incident beams approximated by Gaussian, high-order Flattened-Gaussian, and low-order Flattened-Gaussian functions. We demonstrate that replacing an incident Gaussian beam with a low-order Flattened-Gaussian beam reduces the secondary lobes and significantly improves the uniformity of the intensity profile. We practically applied this effect in engineering a conic-aspheric-based static light-sheet microscope producing markedly improved results.

Keywords: flattened Gaussian beam; laser beam shaping; meso-aspheric optics; static light-sheet microscopy.

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