Robust real-time imaging through flexible multimode fibers

Abdulaziz, A., Mekhail, S. P. , Altmann, Y., Padgett, M. J. and McLaughlin, S. (2023) Robust real-time imaging through flexible multimode fibers. Scientific Reports, 13, 11371. (doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-38480-4) (PMID:37452098)

Abstract

Conventional endoscopes comprise a bundle of optical fibers, associating one fiber for each pixel in the image. In principle, this can be reduced to a single multimode optical fiber (MMF), the width of a human hair, with one fiber spatial-mode per image pixel. However, images transmitted through a MMF emerge as unrecognizable speckle patterns due to dispersion and coupling between the spatial modes of the fiber. Furthermore, speckle patterns change as the fiber undergoes bending, making the use of MMFs in flexible imaging applications even more complicated. In this paper, we propose a real-time imaging system using flexible MMFs, but which is robust to bending. Our approach does not require access or feedback signal from the distal end of the fiber during imaging. We leverage a variational autoencoder to reconstruct and classify images from the speckles and show that these images can still be recovered when the bend configuration of the fiber is changed to one that was not part of the training set. We utilize a MMF 300 mm long with a 62.5 μm core for imaging 10 × 10 cm objects placed approximately at 20 cm from the fiber and the system can deal with a change in fiber bend of 50∘ and range of movement of 8 cm.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering under the Research Fellowship scheme RF201617/16/31 and by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Grant number EP/T00097X/1.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Mekhail, Mr Simon and Padgett, Professor Miles
• Authors: Abdulaziz, A., Mekhail, S. P., Altmann, Y., Padgett, M. J., and McLaughlin, S.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Journal Name: Scientific Reports
• Publisher: Nature Research
• ISSN: 2045-2322
• ISSN (Online): 2045-2322
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Scientific Reports 13: 11371
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
305567		QuantIC - The UK Quantum Technoogy Hub in Quantum Enhanced Imaging	Miles Padgett	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	EP/T00097X/1	P&S - Physics & Astronomy