Wide spectral range confocal microscope based on endlessly single-mode fiber.

We report an endlessly single mode, fiber-optic confocal microscope, based on a large mode area photonic crystal fiber. The microscope confines a very broad spectral range of excitation and emission wavelengths to a single spatial mode in the fiber. Single-mode operation over an optical octave is feasible. At a magnification of 10 and λ = 900 nm, its resolution was measured to be 1.0 μm (lateral) and 2.5 μm (axial). The microscope's use is demonstrated by imaging single photons emitted by individual InAs quantum dots in a pillar microcavity.