Enabling photonic technologies for seeing-limited telescopes: Fabrication of integrated photonic lanterns on a chip

Izabela Spaleniak*, Nemanja Jovanovic, Simon Gross, Michael Ireland, Jon Lawrence, Michael Withford

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this paper we present theoretical and laboratory results on integrated directly-written photonic lanterns with varying taper lengths. These lanterns convert seeing-limited light into multiple diffraction limited signals, in other words, a multimode signal into multiple single-mode signals. We investigated 19-channel structures which were written within a 30-mm-long glass block and designed to operate at 1550 nm. A single structure consisted of a multimode waveguide which transitioned into an array of single-mode waveguides and then back to a multimode waveguide utilizing cosine taper transitions. Based on simulations we found that transition lengths of 6 mm were sufficient to obtain throughput at a level of ∼95%. Fabricated devices showed losses (coupling and transition losses) at the level of 30% for injection F/# > 5 and taper lengths > 5 mm. We believe that such devices show great promise for future use in astronomy.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationModern Technologies in Space- and Ground-Based Telescopes and Instrumentation II
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012
Externally publishedYes
EventModern Technologies in Space- and Ground-Based Telescopes and Instrumentation II - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Duration: 1 Jul 20126 Jul 2012

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume8450
ISSN (Print)0277-786X

Conference

ConferenceModern Technologies in Space- and Ground-Based Telescopes and Instrumentation II
Country/TerritoryNetherlands
CityAmsterdam
Period1/07/126/07/12

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