Applications of propagation invariant light fields

Summary: Shaping the transverse amplitude and phase profile of laser light fields has a major impact upon many scientific applications. Applications in photonics, such as optical micromanipulation and imaging, have benefited greatly in this respect. This chapter describes how one may shape a laser profile to obviate the ubiquitous phenomena of diffraction over a finite length. "Non-diffracting" light modes, namely Bessel, Mathieu, and Airy modes, are described and their applications are discussed including those in the biomedical sciences especially in manipulation of mesoscopic particles, imaging, and cell nanosurgery. The chapter presents a brief mathematical introduction to these fields using both scalar and vector representation. Finally, it progresses to exemplar applications where such propagation invariant fields are offering key benefits over the use of standard Gaussian light fields.