What is it about?

We created a new type of fiber-optic spectrometer that does not need a traditional camera to work. Conventional fiber spectrometers rely on bulky and expensive infrared cameras to analyze light, making them hard to miniaturize and costly. Our design replaces the camera with a tiny silicon chip that reads light patterns directly. We also use a special type of optical fiber and a programmable photonic circuit to improve the performance of the system. This setup allows us to detect extremely small changes in light wavelength—down to just a few picometers—while keeping the system small and affordable. This technology could make it easier to build portable, low-cost spectrometers for use in healthcare, food testing, and environmental monitoring.

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Why is it important?

This work demonstrates a compact spectrometer that achieves picometer-level resolution without relying on a camera. By integrating a few-mode fiber with a programmable silicon photonic chip, the system is made smaller and more cost-effective. This approach addresses the growing need for portable, high-resolution spectrometers in applications such as biomedical sensing and environmental monitoring.

Perspectives

This project started with the idea of simplifying fiber spectrometers by removing bulky imaging components. During the process, I was excited to see how combining a few-mode fiber with a silicon photonic chip could achieve high performance in such a compact form. I believe this work not only shows the potential of chip-scale spectrometers but also opens up opportunities for more accessible optical sensing tools in the future.

Mingyuan Zhang
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)

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This page is a summary of: A camera-free and picometer-scale resolution few-mode fiber spectrometer, APL Photonics, July 2025, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/5.0271875.
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