We introduce the GRIN-axicon, a new low-cost optical component that is easy to manufacture and could replace the axicon in various setups such as a two-photon microscope. In neuroscience, the imaging of in vivo samples requires high temporal resolution in order to capture the interactions between neurons located at different depths in the tissue. To achieve this, the use of an axicon lens increases the depth of field of the microscope and reduces the number of scans to be performed. However, the axicon is difficult to manufacture and generally has defects on the tip of the cone, thus degrading the quality of the resultant Bessel-Gauss beam.
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