Optimization of Airy beam profile to improve light-sheet microscopy illumination

Light-sheet microscopy (LSM) is an imaging technique that has the facilities of fast and high contrast 3D imaging with minimal light exposure. In LSM, a conventional Gaussian beam has a rapid divergence so it prevents the generation of a uniformly thin sheet of light. An Airy beam remains diffraction-free over long distances compared to the Gaussian beam and also shows up an advantage of a self-healing property. Herein, beam shaping is widely noticeable to generate different types of beams and to modify their properties. The Airy beam could be combined with light-sheet microscopy to achieve a higher contrast over an extended field of view (FOV) and penetration depth. In this research, we investigate the effect of the Airy beam profile on the LSM properties including the light penetration depth and the image contrast. The beam properties are controlled by computer-generated hologram (CGH) patterns on a spatial light modulator (SLM).