Open AccessDouble-clad fiber coupler for endoscopy
Author(s) -
Simon Lemire-Renaud,
Maxime Rivard,
Mathias Strupler,
Dominic Morneau,
Frédéric Verpillat,
Xavier Daxhelet,
Nicolas Godbout,
Caroline Boudoux
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.18.009755
Subject(s) - optics , materials science , cladding (metalworking) , achromatic lens , tapering , speckle pattern , optical fiber , depth of field , physics , computer science , computer graphics (images) , metallurgy
We present a double-clad fiber coupler (DCFC) for use in endoscopy to reduce speckle contrast, increase signal collection and depth of field. The DCFC is made by fusing and tapering two all silica double-clad fiber (DCF) and allows achromatic transmission of >95% of core illumination (1265nm - 1325nm) as well as collection of >42% of inner cladding diffuse light. Its potential for endoscopy is demonstrated in a spectrally encoded imaging setup which shows speckle reduction by a factor 5, increased signal collection by a factor 9 and enhanced depth of field by 1.8 times. Separation by the DCFC of single- and multi-mode signals allows combining low-speckle reflectance images (25.5 fps) with interferometrically measured depth profiles (post-processed) for of small three-dimensional (3D) features through an all-fiber low loss instrument.