Confocal microscopy via multimode fibers: fluorescence bandwidth

We recently described a method for confocal reflection imaging through fibers, as a way to increase contrast when imaging unstained biological specimens. Using a transmission matrix, focused spots can be created at the distal end of a fiber. The backscattered field coming back from the sample can be filtered using optical correlation to obtain spatial selectivity in the detection. In this proceedings article, we briefly review the working principle of this method, and we discuss how the scheme could be adapted to confocal fluorescence imaging. In particular, we show simulations of the achievable detection bandwidth when using step-index multimode fibers as imaging devices.