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

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. Although 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 m long fiber, and 0.03 nm resolution over 5 nm bandwidth with a 5 m fiber. The insertion loss is less than 10%, and the signal-to-noise ratio in the reconstructed spectra is more than 1000. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America