Photonic lantern behaviour and implications for instrument design

Anthony Horton; Robert Content; Simon Ellis; Jon Lawrence

doi:10.1117/12.2054570

28 July 2014 Photonic lantern behaviour and implications for instrument design

Anthony Horton, Robert Content, Simon Ellis, Jon Lawrence

Proceedings Volume 9151, Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation; 915122 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2054570
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2014, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

Photonic lanterns are an important enabling technology for astrophotonics with a wide range of potential applications including fibre Bragg grating OH suppression, integrated photonic spectrographs and fibre scramblers for high resolution spectroscopy. The behaviour of photonic lanterns differs in several important respects from the conventional fibre systems more frequently used in astronomical instruments and a detailed understanding of this behaviour is required in order to make the most effective use of this promising technology. To this end we have undertaken a laboratory study of photonic lanterns with the aim of developing an empirical model for the mapping from input to output illumination distributions. We have measured overall transmission and near field output light distributions as a function of input angle of incidence for photonic lanterns with between 19 and 61 cores. We present the results of this work, highlight the key differences between photonic lanterns and conventional fibres, and illustrate the implications for instrument design via a case study, the design of the PRAXIS spectrograph. The empirical photonic lantern model was incorporated into an end-to-end PRAXIS performance model which was used to optimise the design parameters of the instrument. We describe the methods used and the resulting conclusions. The details of photonic lantern behaviour proved particularly important in selecting the optimum on sky field of view per fibre and in modelling of the instrument thermal background.

Citation Download Citation

Anthony Horton, Robert Content, Simon Ellis, and Jon Lawrence "Photonic lantern behaviour and implications for instrument design", Proc. SPIE 9151, Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation, 915122 (28 July 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2054570

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available