Data for "High resolution air-clad imaging fibers"

This body of work is designed to provide an indication of the imaging performance of a novel, high resolution imaging coherent fibre bundle fabricated in the University of Bath's Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials' facilities. Traditionally, the imaging fibres such as those used in medical endoscopes consist of solid doped and undoped silica glass.

The novelty of our design is in having the cladding that is comprised of air-filled silica capillaries, achieving a cladding index close to that of air. This increase in index contrast with the cores (still solid doped silica) provides a higher numerical aperture waveguide. As a result, the light is better confined to the cores, and higher resolution, or a wider operational bandwidth, can be achieved.