Using a multimode fiber as a high resolution, low loss spectrometer

Abstract: We propose and demonstrate that a conventional multimode fiber can function as a high resolution, low loss spectrometer. The proposed spectrometer consists only of the fiber and a camera that images the speckle pattern generated by interference among the fiber modes. While this speckle pattern is detrimental to many applications, it encodes information about the spectral content of the input signal which can be recovered using calibration data. We achieve a spectral resolution of 0.15 nm over 25 nm bandwidth using 1 meter long fiber, and 0.03 nm resolution over 5 nm bandwidth with a 5 meter fiber. The insertion loss is less than 10%, and the signal to noise ratio in the reconstructed spectra is over 1000.