Single-fiber hyperspectral imaging via nanophotonic disordered dispersion

Optical fibers are widely used to transmit optical signals for communications and sensing. Extending this capability to hyperspectral imaging is attractive for compact imaging systems, but is fundamentally constrained by limited channel capacity and transmission distortion of fibers. Here, we demonstrate single-fiber hyperspectral imaging via nanophotonic disordered dispersion. A disordered-dispersion encoder at the distal fiber end can map high-dimensional spectral-angular information into a one-dimensional spectral measurement, which is then computationally decoded using sparsity-constrained reconstruction. Our disordered dispersion is achieved using nonlocal nanophotonic structures that support high mode density and multimode coupling, thereby enabling low-correlation compressive encoding. The system features angular reconstruction over a field of view of ±60°, spectral detection from 400 to 700 nm, and robustness against fiber distortion. This work circumvents the need for real-space pixelated encoders or detectors used in traditional hyperspectral cameras, offering a route toward ultra-compact high-dimensional imagers compatible with flexible single-fiber probes. Researchers show that a single optical fiber can transmit hyperspectral images using a tiny nanophotonic encoder, opening a path toward compact, flexible probes for imaging and sensing.