Imaging with Multimode Fibers

Image courtesy of Demetri Psaltis

For half a century, engineers have sought ways to use multimode fiber (MMF) to transmit images. Practical image transfer through MMFs has the potential to revolutionize medical endoscopy. Because of the fiber’s ability to transmit multiple spatial modes of light simultaneously, MMFs could, in principle, replace the millimeters-thick bundles of fibers currently used in endoscopes with a single fiber only a few hundred microns thick. That, in turn, could potentially open up new, less invasive forms of endoscopy to perform high-resolution imaging of tissues out of reach of current conventional endoscopes.