Bessel beam illumination reduces resolution degradation due to micro-architectural heterogeneities for dual-axis confocal microscopy of tissues

We utilize both Gaussian and Bessel illumination in a point-scanned dual-axis confocal (DAC) microscope and quantify the resultant degradation of resolution when imaging in phantoms and tissues. Results indicate that Bessel illumination exhibits reduced resolution degradation from micro-scale refractive heterogeneities compared to conventional Gaussian illumination.