A broadband optical fiber tap for transferring optical energy out of an optical fiber having an optical fiber with a primary and secondary microbends for the purpose of coupling optical energy into the higher-order modes of the fiber, and a reflecting surface formed in the cladding of the fiber and positioned at an angle so as to reflect, by total internal reflection, higher-order mode energy away from the optical fiber. In the preferred embodiment, the two microbends are spaced apart by a distance approximately equal to one-half of the intermodal beat length for LP01 and LP11 modes of a single-mode fiber.