Related papers: Photonic lantern behaviour and implications for in…
The design space for photonic lanterns is large and complex, making it challenging to identify optimal parameters to achieve specific performances, such as coupling, bandwidth, and insertion loss. Effectively navigating this space requires…
The coupling of large telescopes to astronomical instruments has historically been challenging due to the tension between instrument throughput and stability. Light from the telescope can either be injected wholesale into the instrument,…
Photonic lanterns allow the decomposition of highly multimodal light into a simplified modal basis such as single-moded and/or few-moded. They are increasingly finding uses in astronomy, optics and telecommunications. Calculating…
There are numerous advantages to exploiting diffraction-limited instrumentation at astronomical observatories, which include smaller footprints, less mechanical and thermal instabilities and high levels of performance. To realize such…
Adaptive optics systems are critical in any application where highly resolved imaging or beam control must be performed through a dynamic medium. Such applications include astronomy and free-space optical communications, where light…
A photonic spectrograph can be much smaller than a conventional spectrograph with the same resolving power. Individual devices can be integrated with optical fibres to improve the multiplex gain in astronomical spectroscopy. Although…
The photonic lantern (PL) is a tapered waveguide that can efficiently couple light into multiple single-mode optical fibers. Such devices are currently being considered for a number of tasks, including the coupling of telescopes and…
Photonic lanterns allow for a low-loss transformation of a multimode waveguide into a discrete number of single-mode waveguides and vice versa, thus, enabling the use of single-mode photonic technologies in multimode systems. In this…
Photonic lanterns (PLs) are tapered waveguides that gradually transition from a multi-mode fiber geometry to a bundle of single-mode fibers. In astronomical applications, PLs can efficiently couple multi-mode telescope light into a…
One of the well-known problems of producing instruments for Extremely Large Telescopes is that their size (and hence cost) scales rapidly with telescope aperture. To try to break this relation alternative new technologies have been…
For the past forty years, optical fibres have found widespread use in ground-based and space-based instruments. In most applications, these fibres are used in conjunction with conventional optics to transport light. But photonics offers a…
While photonic lanterns efficiently and uniquely map a set of input modes to single-mode outputs (or vice versa), the optical mode transfer matrix of any particular fabricated device cannot be constrained at the design stage due to…
Photonics offer numerous functionalities that can be used to realize astrophotonic instruments. The most spectacular example to date is the ESO Gravity instrument at the Very Large Telescope in Chile. Integrated astrophotonic devices stand…
Using photonic devices, we developed a new approach to traditional spectroscopy where the spectral cross-correlation with a template spectrum can be done entirely on-device. By creating photonic devices with a carefully designed, modulated…
We demonstrate a new approach to classical fiber-fed spectroscopy. Our method is to use a photonic lantern that converts an arbitrary (e.g. incoherent) input beam into N diffraction-limited outputs. For the highest throughput, the number of…
One of the most useful techniques in astronomical instrumentation is image slicing. It enables a spectrograph to have a more compact angular slit, whilst retaining throughput and increasing resolving power. Astrophotonic components like the…
Photonic Lanterns (PLs) are tapered waveguides that gradually transition from a multi-mode fiber geometry to a bundle of single-mode fibers (SMFs). They can efficiently couple multi-mode telescope light into a multi-mode fiber entrance at…
Optical fibers have altered astronomical instrument design by allowing for a complex, often large instrument to be mounted in a remote and stable location with respect to the telescope. The fibers also enable the possibility to rearrange…
The study of integrating photonic devices into astronomical instruments is the primary focus of astrophotonics. The growth in this area of study is relatively recent. Research related to astronomical spectroscopic phenomena has received a…
Astrophotonics is a burgeoning field that lies at the interface of photonics and modern astronomical instrumentation. Here we provide a pedagogical review of basic photonic functions that enable modern instruments, and give an overview of…