Observing distant objects with a multimode fibre-based holographic endoscope

Abstract

Holographic wavefront manipulation enables converting hair-thin multimode optical fibres into minimally invasive lensless imaging instruments conveying much higher information densities than conventional endoscopes. Their most prominent applications focus on accessing delicate environments, including deep brain compartments, and recording micrometre-scale resolution images of structures in close proximity to the distal end of the instrument. Here, we introduce an alternative 'farfield' endoscope, capable of imaging macroscopic objects across a large depth of field. The endoscope shaft with dimensions of 0.2$\times$0.4 mm${}^2$ consists of two parallel optical fibres, one for illumination and the second for signal collection. The system is optimized for speed, power efficiency and signal quality, taking into account specific features of light transport through step-index multimode fibres. The characteristics of imaging quality are studied at distances between 20 and 400 mm. As a proof-of-concept, we provide imaging inside the cavities of a sweet pepper commonly used as a phantom for biomedically relevant conditions. Further, we test the performance on a functioning mechanical clock, thus verifying its applicability in dynamically changing environments. With performance reaching the standard definition of video endoscopes, this work paves the way towards the exploitation of minimally-invasive holographic micro-endoscopes in clinical and diagnostics applications.

9+6 pages, 4+5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (10)

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• How to build the optical inverse of a multimode fibre
• Spectral Shaping in a Multimode Fiber by All-fiber Modulation
• Harnessing the power of complex light propagation in multimode fibers for spatially resolved sensing
• Tutorial: How to build and control an all-fiber wavefront modulator using mechanical perturbations
• Extraction of Bend-Resolved Modal Basis in Deformed Multimode Fiber
• Wavefront engineering for controlled structuring of far-field intensity and phase patterns from multimodal optical fibers