Bessel beam

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Non-diffractive wave

title: "Bessel beam" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["laser-science"] description: "Non-diffractive wave" topic_path: "general/laser-science" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessel_beam" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Non-diffractive wave ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Bessel_beam.gif" caption="Evolution of a Bessel beam."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Bessel_beam.svg" caption="Diagram of [[axicon]] and resulting Bessel beam"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Bessek_beam_intensity.svg" caption="Cross-section of the Bessel beam and graph of intensity"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Bessel_beam_reform.svg" caption="Bessel beam re-forming central bright area after obstruction"] ::

A Bessel beam is a wave whose amplitude is described by a Bessel function of the first kind.{{cite journal |last1=Garcés-Chávez |first1=V. |last2=McGloin |first2=D. |last3=Melville |first3=H. |last4=Sibbett |first4=W. |last5=Dholakia |first5=K. |year=2002 |title=Simultaneous micromanipulation in multiple planes using a self-reconstructing light beam |journal=Nature |volume=419 |issue=6903 |pages=145–7 |bibcode=2002Natur.419..145G |doi=10.1038/nature01007 |pmid=12226659 |s2cid=4426776 |last1=McGloin |first1=D. |last2=Dholakia |first2=K. |year=2005 |title=Bessel beams: diffraction in a new light |journal=Contemporary Physics |volume= 46|issue= 1|pages=15–28 |bibcode=2005ConPh..46...15M |doi=10.1080/0010751042000275259 |s2cid=31363603

Properties

The mathematical function which describes a Bessel beam is a solution of Bessel's differential equation, which itself arises from separable solutions to Laplace's equation and the Helmholtz equation in cylindrical coordinates. The fundamental zero-order Bessel beam has an amplitude maximum at the origin, while a high-order Bessel beam (HOBB) has an axial phase singularity along the beam axis; the amplitude is zero there. HOBBs can be of vortex (helicoidal) or non-vortex types. |last1=Mitri |first1=F. G. |year=2011 |title=Linear axial scattering of an acoustical high-order Bessel trigonometric beam by compressible soft fluid spheres |journal=Journal of Applied Physics |volume=109 |issue=1 |pages=014916–014916–5 |bibcode=2011JAP...109a4916M |doi=10.1063/1.3518496 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1232912

Acceleration

Attenuation-compensation

Beams may encounter losses as they travel through materials which will cause attenuation of the beam intensity. A property common to non-diffracting (or propagation-invariant) beams, such as the Airy beam and Bessel beam, is the ability to control the longitudinal intensity envelope of the beam without significantly altering the other characteristics of the beam. This can be used to create Bessel beams which grow in intensity as they travel and can be used to counteract losses, therefore maintaining a beam of constant intensity as it propagates.

Applications

Imaging and microscopy

In light-sheet fluorescence microscopy, non-diffracting (or propagation-invariant) beams have been utilised to produce very long and uniform light-sheets which do not change size significantly across their length. The self-healing property of Bessel beams has also shown to give improved image quality at depth as the beam shape is less distorted after travelling through scattering tissue than a Gaussian beam. Bessel beam based light-sheet microscopy was first demonstrated in 2010 but many variations have followed since. In 2018, it was shown that the use of attenuation-compensation could be applied to Bessel beam based light-sheet microscopy and could enable imaging at greater depths within biological specimens.

Acoustofluidics

Bessel beams are a good candidate for the selectively trapping, because of the concentric circles of pressure maximum and minimum in the transverse planes.

References

(1992). "Constant-axial-intensity nondiffracting beam". Optics Letters.
D. Baresch, J.L. Thomas, and R. Marchiano, Physical review letters, 2016, 116(2), 024301.
Zamboni-Rached, Michel. (2004-08-23). "Stationary optical wave fields with arbitrary longitudinal shape by superposing equal frequency Bessel beams: Frozen Waves". Optics Express.
(2009-08-31). "Tunable Bessel light modes: engineering the axial propagation". Optics Express.
(2010). "Microscopy with self-reconstructing beams". Nature Photonics.
(2018-04-01). "Light-sheet microscopy with attenuation-compensated propagation-invariant beams". Science Advances.

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