Flexible light path for transmitting image

Abstract

The invention provides a flexible light path for transmitting an image, and particularly provides the flexible image transmitting light path formed by making multiple lens sets connected through mechanical cardan joints to achieve multi-degree-of-freedom rotation. The flexible light path comprises a set of coupling lenses, multiple sets of relay lenses, a set of objectives and multiple sets of mechanical cardan joints; the coupling lenses, the multiple sets of relay lenses and the objectives are connected through the mechanical cardan joints, and the multi-degree-of-freedom rotation is achieved; the relay lenses image a two-dimensional scanning plane in an air gap of two adjacent relay lenses, and therefore two-dimensional scanning transmission of ultrafast laser is achieved. The flexible light path is simple in structure, small in size and low in cost and can replace an image transmitting light fiber beam to be used for distortion-free high-resolution transmission of an image in a curved pipe.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to a flexible optical path for image transmission, especially a bendable image transmission optical path formed by connecting multi-piece lens groups through mechanical universal joints to realize multi-degree-of-freedom rotation, which can replace image transmission fiber bundles for bending images in pipelines Distortion-free high-resolution transmission. Background technique [0002] In order to achieve distortion-free transmission of images in a curved tubular structure, the usual method is to use an imaging optical fiber bundle. Image fiber bundles and illumination fiber bundles are composed of as many as thousands to tens of thousands of optical fibers. The arrangement of optical fibers at both ends of the image transmission fiber bundle is exactly the same, and the positions of each fiber at both ends correspond one by one, so that the image on one side of the image transmission fiber bundle can be transmitted to the other...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, there are many disadvantages in the image transmission fiber optic bundle: 1. The processing technology is complicated and the cost is high; 2. There is a certain broken wire rate, which affects the imaging quality after long-term use; 3. It cannot transmit ultra-fast laser pulses with high quality, so it cannot be used for Nonlinear optical imaging: Common nonlinear optical effects include two / third-photon excited fluorescence (Two / Third-photon Excited Fluorescence, TPEF / Third PEF), two-photon excited autofluorescence (Two-photon Excited Autofluorescence, TPEAF), two / third harmonic Wave generation (Second / Third Harmonic Generation, SHG / THG), coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (Coherent Anti-Strokes Raman Scattering, CARS), etc.

Therefore, although the image-transmitting fiber bundle has been used for single-photon fluorescence excitation confocal (Confocal) endoscopic imaging, it cannot be used for nonlinear optical imaging.

4. Low imaging resolution: the resolution of the optical imaging system using the image fiber bundle = (the distance between the centers of two adjacent single-mode fibers in the image fiber bundle) * the numerical aperture of the objective lens / the numerical aperture of the image fiber bundle , the distance between the centers of two adjacent single-mode fibers in the common image fiber bundle is at least about 3um, and the numerical aperture of the image fiber bundle is about 0.5. Due to the limitations of the application of the image fiber bundle, the objective lens is often unable The standard high numerical aperture objective lens of a desktop microscope can only be used with a small-diameter micro-objective lens, and its maximum numerical aperture is about 0.5-0.8. 1.0um (such as Cellvizio GastroFlex UHD in France); 5. The imaging is grid-like, which requires post-image processing, low imaging quality, signal crosstalk between adjacent fibers, and materials between adjacent fibers are easily excited to generate fluorescence noise, etc.

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