Highly efficient spectrally encoded imaging using a 45° tilted fiber grating.

A novel highly efficient, fiber-compatible spectrally encoded imaging (SEI) system using a 45° tilted fiber grating (TFG) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The TFG serves as an in-fiber lateral diffraction element, eliminating the need for bulky and lossy free-space diffraction gratings in conventional SEI systems. Under proper polarization control, due to the strong tilted reflection, the 45° TFG offers a diffraction efficiency as high as 93.5%. Our new design significantly reduces the volume of the SEI system and improves energy efficiency and system stability. As a proof-of-principle experiment, spectrally encoded imaging of a customer-designed sample (9.6  mm×3.0  mm) using the TFG-based system is demonstrated. The lateral resolution of the SEI system is measured to be 42 μm in our experiment.