Abstract
Light transport through a multimode optical waveguide undergoes changes when subjected to bending deformations. We show that optical waveguides with a perfectly parabolic refractive index profile are almost immune to bending, conserving the structure of propagation-invariant modes. Moreover, we show that changes to the transmission matrix of parabolic-index fibers due to bending can be expressed with only two free parameters, regardless of how complex a particular deformation is. We provide detailed analysis of experimentally measured transmission matrices of a commercially available graded-index fiber as well as a gradient-index rod-lens featuring a very faithful parabolic refractive index profile. Although parabolic-index fibers with a sufficiently precise refractive index profile are not within our reach, we show that imaging performance with standard commercially available graded-index fibers is significantly less influenced by bending deformations than stepindex types under the same conditions. Our work thus predicts that the availability of ultra-precise parabolic-index fibers will make endoscopic applications with flexible probes feasible and free from extremely elaborate computational challenges.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 233901 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Physical Review Letters |
Volume | 120 |
Issue number | 23 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 6 Jun 2018 |
Keywords
- Biological physics
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Physics and Astronomy
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Dive into the research topics of 'Robustness of Light-Transport Processes to Bending Deformations in Graded-Index Multimode Waveguides'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Student theses
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Accelerated fibre microendoscopy techniques for in-vivo applications
Turtaev, S. (Author), Weijer, C. (Supervisor) & Cizmar, T. (Supervisor), 2018Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy
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