Mode expansion theory and application in step-index multimode fibers for astronomical spectroscopy

In astronomical spectroscopy, optical fibers are abundantly used for multiplexing and decoupling the spectrograph from the telescope to provide stability in a controlled environment. However, fibers are less than perfect optical components and introduce complex effects that diminish the overall throughput, efficiency, and stability of the instrument. We present a novel numerical field propagation model that emulates the effects of modal noise, scrambling, and focal ratio degradation with a rigorous treatment of wave optics. We demonstrate that the simulation of the near- and far-field output of a fiber, injected into a ray-tracing model of the spectrograph, allows us to assess performance at the detector level. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America