Imaging Characteristics of Rigid Coherent Fiber Optic Tapers

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the results of investigations related to the use of tapered fiber optic bundles for two-dimensional image transmission. In the system under consideration, the taper ratio (that is, the demagnification) is about 2:1. Some of the advantages of such systems over lens-coupled ones are immediately apparent. Principally, the fiber-optic-coupled system is considerably shorter, lighter, and mechanically and optically more stable; also the light transmission is higher by more than an order of magnitude. As an important consequence of this, correspondingly lower microchannel plate (MCP) gain is required.