The influence of optical fiber bundle parameters on the transmission of laser speckle patterns

Laser speckle imaging (LSI) techniques provide important functional information about tissue perfusion and mechanical properties. To perform LSI in vivo, laser speckle patterns are transmitted via optical fiber bundles incorporated within small-diameter endoscopes. Inter-fiber crosstalk due to mode coupling in fiber bundles can result in erroneous speckle statistics and therefore reduces the accuracy of LSI analysis. In this paper, we investigate the influence of multiple parameters that influence crosstalk between neighboring cores within optical fiber bundles and govern the modulation of transmitted laser speckle patterns. Our results show that in addition to large core-to-core separation, large refractive index contrast between core and cladding material, reduced number of propagating modes and variability in core size are essential parameters for accurate speckle pattern transmission to conduct endoscopic LSI.