Abstract
We fabricated a multi-core glass fiber composed of 245 anti-resonant hollow optical fibers with a total
diameter of 1 mm and a core diameter of 60 μm for endoscopic infrared-thermal imaging. The multicore
fiber shows low losses in a wavelength range of 3 to 4 μm owing to the anti-resonant effect of the
thin glass wall. We obtained an image resolution of around 420 μm with a 3-mm-diameter field-of-view,
although crosstalk between the adjacent fibers was observed. We also described the results of an imaging
system that uses multi-core fiber with a half-ball lens at the distal end, which can be inserted into a
working channel of endoscopes.
