Fig. 1

Setup and resolution of Airy-beam light sheet microscopy (ALSM). a ALSM system is equipped with 2 water dipping objectives—10 × 0.3 NA illumination and 20X 0.5 NA detection objective—positioned at a 45° angle. Biological specimens are placed on the X-Y-Z stage. Movement of the stage is controlled by a Z-axis Stepper motor (ZSM) which moves the sample along the optical axis of the detection objective. The system is equipped with 405 nm, 488 nm, 561 nm and 640 nm wavelength lasers. b Illumination objective focuses the Airy-beam (green) on to sample and the detection objective captures the emission (yellow) at 90 degrees. The geometry of the objectives gives the system a (hypothetical) working distance of 3.5 mm. c An example of the Airy-beam produced by focusing the 488 nm laser though water. d Representative image of a 500 nm Tetraspeck fluorescent beads imaged at 405, 488, 561 and 640 wavelengths; image has not undergone deconvolution. Characteristic Airy lobes can be seen in the axial plane. e Deconvolved image of the fluorescent bead in C). Axial Airy lobes have been removed following deconvolution. f Image of a single 500 nm Tetraspeck fluorescent bead; the PSF of a single 500 nm bead is 0.625 μm diameter at full width at half maximum (FWHM) when imaged at 488 nm. Scale bars = 500 nm unless stated otherwise