photonic lanterns (original) (raw)
Definition: devices performing a multi-core to multimode transition, based on fibers or other waveguides
Categories: 
fiber optics and waveguides, 
photonic devices
Related: fibersastrophotonics
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DOI: 10.61835/q0t Cite the article: BibTex BibLaTex plain textHTML Link to this page! LinkedIn
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Contents
Applications of Photonic Lanterns
Spectral Filtering in Astronomy
Data Transmission with Mode and Space Division Multiplexing
Beam Combining with Photonic Lanterns
Fabrication of Photonic Lanterns
Tapered Photonic Crystal Fibers
Hole Collapse in Multi-core PCFs
Directly Written Waveguide Structures
Technical Details of Photonic Lanterns
Mode-selective versus Conventional Lanterns
Summary:
The article explains the photonic lantern, a versatile waveguide device that provides a low-loss, adiabatic transition between a single multimode waveguide and an array of single-mode waveguides. This capability makes it a crucial component in various advanced optical systems.
Key applications include spectral filtering in astrophotonics, where they enable the removal of atmospheric noise from starlight, and in optical fiber communications for mode division multiplexing (MDM) and space division multiplexing (SDM). They are also used for reformatting light beams, improving multimode light transport, beam combining (both incoherent and coherent), and in quantum photonics.
Fabrication techniques vary from tapering fused bundles of single-mode fibers to tapering multi-core fibers and using direct laser writing to create integrated photonic circuits. A central design principle is matching the number of modes on the multimode side to the number of single-mode ports to ensure high efficiency. Lanterns can be non-selective or mode-selective, with the latter enabling the separation or excitation of specific spatial modes.
(This summary was generated with AI based on the article content and has been reviewed by the article’s author.)
What Are Photonics Lanterns?
Figure 1: A photonic lantern has one multimode port and multiple single-mode ports.
A photonic lantern is a waveguide device enabling a low-loss transition of light between a multimode structure and one with multiple cores — for example, involving one multimode fiber (or sometimes a few-mode fiber) on one side and several single-mode fibers on the other one. The number of single-mode ports can vary between just a few and over 100. Fabrication tends to become more difficult for larger fiber counts.
A common configuration is a multimode–single-mode–multimode (MM–SM–MM) lantern pair, where light is coupled from a multimode fiber, processed via an array of single-mode channels (for operations such as spectral filtering), and then recombined into a multimode output. Alternatively, some applications utilize only one transition and proceed with further single-mode processing. For instance, arranging the single-mode waveguides in a line can generate a diffraction-limited beam in one axis — an arrangement that is optimal for efficient injection into spectrographs.
Figure 2: A photonic lantern pair. The single-mode waveguides may contain some elements for optical processing, such as fiber Bragg gratings.
The term photonic lantern initially described the visual similarity between the tapered fiber structure and a paper lantern, especially in MM–SM–MM geometries. The terminology, however, has broadened over time: Nowadays, “photonic lantern” generally refers to any device providing an adiabatic transition between multiple single-mode and multimode channels. There is no universally agreed-upon definition — some sources restrict the term based on the number of single-mode ports, mode-number matching requirements, or specific application domains.
Applications of Photonic Lanterns
Originally developed for astronomy (→ astrophotonics), photonic lanterns have become central to many photonic and fiber-optic technologies due to their unique ability to bridge fundamentally different modal regimes.
Spectral Filtering in Astronomy
A classical and influential application of photonic lanterns is in astrophotonics. The challenge of spectral filtering of multimode infrared starlight collected by astronomical telescopes initially led to the development of the first photonic lanterns. Faint stellar signals received by terrestrial telescopes are contaminated by several strong, narrow emission lines from hydroxyl (OH) molecules in the upper atmosphere. As spectrographs are not perfect in terms of signal cross-talk, it is desirable to remove much of that disturbing light before further spectrally analyzing the starlight. For that purpose, fiber Bragg gratings can serve as notch filters.
A challenge is that when starlight is received in a telescope, it is hard to couple it efficiently into a single-mode fiber — but a high coupling efficiency is vital for limiting the required observation times. Unfortunately, fiber Bragg gratings in multimode fibers do not perform as well as those in single-mode fibers, as one obtains mode-dependent reflection peaks, spectrally smearing out the filter response. A solution is to start with a multimode fiber for efficient light collection, then use a first photonic lantern to send the light into single-mode fibers, where the spectral filtering is done: The fiber Bragg gratings, all carefully made to have identical reflection peaks, act as notch filters, reflecting unwanted light. (Multiple such gratings can be used for the different emission peaks of the hydroxyl ions.) A second photonic lantern can be used to combine the light again into another multimode fiber. The whole setup can also be realized as a single compact device when using a multi-core fiber, as explained below.
Observatories may deploy dozens of such lantern-based filtering assemblies in parallel. The overriding design criterion is low insertion loss to maximize throughput, while mode selectivity is not necessary for this filtering application.
Multimode Light Transport
Multimode fibers are widely employed for transporting light from inherently multimode sources, offering high coupling efficiency for light distributed across multiple spatial modes. However, in certain applications, significant intermodal dispersion and elevated bend losses for high-order modes are problematic.
An effective mitigation strategy is transitioning the multimode light into a multi-core fiber using a photonic lantern. Further transport in the multi-core fiber, having single-mode cores, avoids intermodal dispersion (as relevant e.g. for signal transmission) and also minimizes bend losses. At the destination, a second photonic lantern can recombine the signals back into a single multimode format if required.
While this multi-core transport approach offers clear advantages, it also has challenges:
- Implementation complexity: The need for precisely fabricated photonic lanterns and matched multi-core fibers introduces additional design and manufacturing complexity.
- Mode number mismatch: Ensuring that the number of accessible single-mode channels matches the number of supported modes in the multimode sections is essential to avoid excess loss, especially when operating over broad optical bandwidths where modal content can vary.
Despite these considerations, the use of photonic lanterns to mediate between multimode and multi-core transport remains a valuable tool for applications demanding high throughput, minimized dispersion, and improved robustness in sophisticated optical systems.
Reformatting Multimode Light
In many optical applications, it is advantageous to restructure the spatial profile of multimode light — most commonly to adapt the output geometry to match the requirements of downstream instrumentation. For example, generating an output with a high aspect ratio can significantly enhance the efficiency of coupling into a diffraction grating spectrograph [13, 14], which often favors elongated (“pseudo-slit”) illumination for improved spectral resolution, also allowing compactness of the instrument.
Photonic lanterns provide a flexible, low-loss means to achieve such spatial reformatting. By converting the multimode input into an array of single-mode waveguides, which can then be arranged in a custom geometry (e.g., a linear array), the lantern enables the output to be engineered into a specific transverse shape. The obtained light pattern can even be diffraction-limited in one dimension.
Conversely, a highly asymmetric beam, e.g. from a broad area laser diode, can be transformed into a circular beam for more efficient and brightness-conserving launching into a multimode fiber [30].
Data Transmission with Mode and Space Division Multiplexing
Mode division multiplexing (MDM) and space division multiplexing (SDM) are key technological directions in optical fiber communications for further increasing the data transmission capacity.
Photonic lanterns are crucial enablers for these approaches, acting as low-loss interfaces between multiple single-mode fibers and the multimode (or few-mode) fibers used for multiplexed data transport. In an MDM system, independent data streams are launched from separate single-mode fibers. A photonic lantern combines these inputs into orthogonal spatial modes of a multimode or few-mode fiber for simultaneous transmission. At the receiving end, another photonic lantern demultiplexes the composite signal back into the constituent single-mode channels for further processing. The photonic lanterns can be realized as tapered fiber bundles or as integrated photonic circuits (chip-type devices), both offering scalability and low insertion loss.
Importantly, strict mode selectivity is not required for compatibility with standard multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) digital signal processing; it is sufficient that the channels are launched in orthogonal states, and unitary propagation in the fiber preserves this orthogonality.
To limit the computational complexity of MIMO processing, it is advantageous to minimize intermodal dispersion effects in the transmission fiber. This can be achieved by designing the photonic lantern (geometry and refractive index profile) such that each input channel excites mode groups with minimal group velocity spread. For even simpler signal processing, a mode-selective photonic lantern, which maps each input to a well-defined fiber mode, would be ideal, but this is difficult to realize for large mode counts.
For space division multiplexing, one can also utilize multi-core fibers, with photonic lanterns facilitating coupling to and from these parallel spatial channels.
SDM principles are also used in free-space optical communications, where mode-diverse transmission, enabled by photonic lanterns, can enhance data rates and mitigate atmospheric turbulence effects by exploiting spatial orthogonality and diversity [29].
Beam Combining with Photonic Lanterns
Photonic lanterns offer a powerful and flexible solution for beam combining, i.e., combining multiple independent light beams, particularly when those channels are delivered via single-mode fibers or waveguides.
Incoherent (Power) Beam Combining
In the simplest case, a photonic lantern provides an efficient all-fiber means to incoherently combine the optical powers of several independent single-mode sources into a single multimode fiber. Each single-mode input is injected into its own port at the lantern’s single-mode end, and all are combined to one multimode output. The coupling can be highly efficient, but the obtained multimode output format is not suitable for all applications.
Coherent Beam Combining
For applications demanding increased brightness (radiance) — such as directed energy or laser material processing — coherent beam combining (CBC) is achievable with photonic lanterns. This method is best understood by first considering the reverse process: A single-mode beam enters the multimode side of a lantern, which creates multiple single-mode outputs with certain optical amplitudes and phases. For coherent beam combining, one tries to realize the opposite (time reversed) process: providing multiple single-mode inputs with suitable amplitudes and phases to create the designed single-mode output, concentrating most power in a single spatial mode of the multimode fiber. This process not only aggregates the optical powers but also shapes the combined output into a desired modal profile. That way, one maximizes beam quality and brightness (radiance).
For this to work, one needs to apply active control of the input phases and possibly the amplitudes [39]. Only under these conditions, the contributions from all channels can interfere constructively. In practice, coherent combining almost always requires a feedback system that monitors the output (e.g., using photodetectors and reference signals) and continuously adjusts the phases with phase modulators to optimize the output. Ideally, the lantern should be made such that similar input powers in all ports work well.
Photonic lantern beam combiners offer unique advantages:
- All-fiber integration implies that the setup is intrinsically alignment-free, robust against mechanical perturbations, and compatible with splicing and packaging. Low loss and high stability even under non-ideal ambient conditions can be achieved.
- Multiple channels (ranging from a few up to tens or even more) can be efficiently combined; the scalability is limited primarily by fabrication complexity and the power handling capacity.
Quantum Photonics
Photonic lanterns have emerged as powerful enabling components in quantum photonics:
Quantum Communication
Photonic lanterns enable high-efficiency interfacing between free-space or multimode quantum channels (e.g., from telescopes and inter-satellite free-space links) and arrays of single-photon detectors. This is particularly valuable for free-space quantum key distribution (QKD), where coupling directly into single-mode fibers is alignment-sensitive. Using a photonic lantern, one can substantially increase the achievable secret key rate [40].
By supporting multiple spatial modes, photonic lanterns allow for parallel transmission of quantum information, dramatically increasing channel capacity.
Similar techniques can aid quantum state engineering.
Multiplexed Single-Photon Sources and Detectors
In integrated quantum photonics for various purposes, photonic lanterns facilitate the routing of photons from multiple single-photon sources (e.g., based on quantum dots) into spatially separated modes or fiber channels. Similarly, quantum light states can be distributed to multiple photodetectors on a chip. Lanterns thus support the development of large-scale, on-chip quantum information processors.
Quantum photonics research involves the development of 3D-printed and monolithically integrated photonic lanterns for low-loss mode (de)multiplexing in chip-scale quantum photonic circuits. Such devices can support the compact and robust realization of complex quantum information processing tasks.
Quantum Sensing and Measurement
Quantum-enhanced sensing (e.g., for magnetometry, optical clocks, or interferometric measurements) also benefits from lantern-based mode-selective coupling, enabling efficient collection of quantum signals scattered or emitted in specific spatial modes.
Other Applications
Photonic lanterns also find applications in various other fields, such as in optical coherence tomography, wavefront sensing [32, 36, 43], LIDAR [20] and particle trapping and manipulation [28].
Fabrication of Photonic Lanterns
Fusing Fiber Bundles
A typical way of fabricating a photonic lantern is to start with a bundle of single-mode fibers (→ fiber bundles), which is heated to be fused and drawn down to form a single multimode fiber core at one end. The bundle is surrounded by a suitable glass tube (capillary, cane) as a low-index mantle that can become the fiber cladding of the formed multimode fiber. The refractive index of the glass cane (typically fluorine-doped fused silica) is chosen lower than that of the claddings of the single-mode fiber.
The tapering process (stretching in the heated state) is usually performed in a specialized taper rig, rather than in a fiber drawing tower. (Note that the total diameter is often still below 1 mm, while a fiber preform as used in a drawing tower can have a diameter of multiple centimeters.) Heating is often done with a flame, but one may also use electric heaters or a CO2 laser, for example. To some extent, surface tension of the softened glass will modify the outer shape towards a circular cross-section. The diameter of the tapered section is typically similar to that of the original single-mode fibers.
When the single-mode fibers are joined, they first fuse together to form a glass block still containing individual single-mode cores. When sufficient tapering is applied, these cores lose their ability to guide light, since their V-number becomes very small: The core diameter gets smaller, while the numerical aperture remains unchanged, or even becomes smaller due to material diffusion. Therefore, light injected into a single-mode fiber will eventually get into a superposition of modes on the multimode side. Although one does not have a usual kind of multimode core with a homogeneous refractive index, it is still acting as a multimode core.
Once the tapering has been finished, one can cut or cleave the taper region and fusion-splice it to an ordinary multimode fiber.
Using single-mode fibers with reduced cladding diameter (well below the typical value of 125 ÎĽm) can substantially facilitate the photonic lantern fabrication, since the overall size of the device that needs to be tapered becomes smaller.
Note that for high port counts, such fabrication methods tend to be quite cumbersome, involving the handling of many fibers.
Tapered Photonic Crystal Fibers
Another method (actually used originally) starts with a fiber preform with holes, as used for fabricating photonic crystal fibers (PCF). Here, however, the preform has holes which are suitable for inserting single-mode fibers before the drawing process. Another ring of holes remains open; it will be used for light confinement. After tapering (in this case, in a fiber drawing tower), one has a multimode PCF on one side and multiple single-mode fibers on the other one, forming a photonic lantern.
A challenge can be that the number of modes of the multimode section tends to be higher (due to the high-NA air hole cladding) than the number of single-mode ports — which implies high coupling losses when coming from the multimode side (depending on the launch conditions).
Tapered Multi-core Fiber
It is also possible to start with a multi-core fiber inserted into a solid cladding of lower refractive index. Here, the single-mode part does not consist of individual fibers, but of the (only weakly coupled) cores of the multi-core fiber. One may, for example, fabricate fiber Bragg gratings as notch filters in the central multi-core part and taper both ends to obtain multimode connections.
Avoiding the handling of a large number of single-mode fibers, this method is far easier to perform efficiently in case of a large port count — which can be rather high, potentially far over 100 [25]. Further, thousands of photonic lanterns can be fabricated with a single drawing operation.
Of course, with this method one naturally loses some options requiring individual fibers. For example, such fibers could be freely positioned in one line. With a multi-core fiber based device, such arrangements would at least require an additional fan-out device.
Hole Collapse in Multi-core PCFs
Like the previously described method, this method begins with a multi-core fiber, but this time of photonic crystal fiber type, where light guidance is obtained by included air holes. The fiber is again heated, but not for tapering; instead, one does this to collapse some of the air holes [15]. For other holes, this may be prevented by gas pressure when these holes are sealed at the fiber endfaces [2].
The collapse of air holes over some length can effectively interrupt the single-mode guidance, thus forming a multimode region. By cutting or cleaving the fiber in such a region with collapsed holes, one can obtain a photonic lantern which can be connected with some multimode fiber.
Directly Written Waveguide Structures
Using laser writing techniques with ultrashort pulses (direct ultrafast laser inscription), it is possible to fabricate waveguides within a block of glass, that do not need to be straight. In particular, it is possible to write photonic lanterns, even as parts of larger photonic integrated circuits [3, 7].
This is a very versatile technique, as waveguides can be arbitrarily directed, and is suitable for efficient mass production. Another advantage is that drift of relative phase shifts between single-mode parts can be rather small, given the high mechanical stability of the created photonic chip.
The propagation losses are typically quite high, but may be mitigated by the required short propagation distances and by future technological improvements.
Technical Details of Photonic Lanterns
Number of Modes
The number of guided modes of the multimode section (counted without considering the polarization of light) is an important parameter of a photonic lantern:
- If it is smaller than the number of single-mode ports, there will necessarily be losses of light coming from those fibers.
- If it is larger, not all light in the multimode section can be coupled into the single-mode ports.
These restrictions can be understood based on fundamental thermodynamic considerations. The number of modes is related to entropy of light that is arbitrarily distributed over the modes.
As a result of those conditions, a photonic lantern could in principle be lossless in both directions only if the multimode section has a number of modes equal to the number of fibers — and this is often a key target of lantern designs. Assuming a multimode section of step-index type and a large number of modes, that number of modes can be estimated as N \approx \frac{V^2}{4} = \frac{(\frac{{2\pi }}{\lambda } r_\textrm{co} \;{\mathsf{NA}})^2}{4} = \left( \frac{\pi \: r_\textrm{co} \: \mathsf{NA}}{\lambda} \right)^2$$
where (V) is the V-number, (\mathsf{NA}) the numerical aperture and (r_\textrm{co}) the core radius of the multimode section.
Note that the mode number matching can work only in a limited wavelength range, assuming that the attached fibers remain single-mode over the considered range. It is not possible, for example, for the whole visible wavelength region, as is relevant for some applications.
Even if the number of modes is matched, and without fabrication-related imperfections, lossless operation is not guaranteed. One possible reason is that the modes of the multimode section generally do not completely match those of the fibers. That can in certain situations be related to different symmetries of the multimode core (e.g. with a square shape) and fibers (with circular symmetry); the resulting coupling losses may be called symmetry loss. Another potential problem is that the transition is not sufficiently adiabatic.
Simulations using numerical beam propagation can be used to investigate such limitations and their dependence on the used photonic lantern design, thus also for optimizing designs.
Mode-selective versus Conventional Lanterns
Some photonic lanterns are mode-selective, which means that light in each single-mode fiber corresponds to one guided mode of the multimode fiber, rather than to a superposition of multiple such modes. Used in the other direction, such a mode-selective photonic lantern can separate light in the modes of its multimode input, sending light from each mode into one specific single-mode port. However, most photonic lanterns are not mode-selective, and that property is also not required for the originally envisaged applications. In particular, they are used to efficiently send light from a multimode input to single-mode ports, i.e., without losing much of the optical power.
There are some methods for obtaining mode-selective (also called mode-specific) photonic lanterns:
- A common technique is to start with single-mode fibers having different propagation constants — for example, by pre-tapering them to somewhat different diameters. The symmetry and placement of fibers in the bundle also matter.
- Similarly, direct laser waveguide writing allows one to obtain waveguides with different propagation constants on a photonic chip.
- There are also trajectory-engineered lanterns [42], where waveguides with the same parameters but asymmetric placement are used.
Usually, mode-selective lanterns are limited to a relatively small number of ports. They usually have high modal isolation, and their operation is typically wavelength-independent in a substantial bandwidth (possibly hundreds of nanometers).
A kind of hybrid type — also called semi-selective or mode-group selective photonic lanterns, refers to devices with a partial level of mode selectivity. Here, each single-mode input excites some superposition of modes, but e.g. only of some modes having similar group velocities. Such hybrid lanterns are used in cases with high port count where fully mode-selective behavior would be hard to achieve, but partial mode selectivity is already helpful.
Frequently Asked Questions
This FAQ section was generated with AI based on the article content and has been reviewed by the article’s author (RP).
What is a photonic lantern?
A photonic lantern is a waveguide device that enables a low-loss transition of light between a multimode structure, like a multimode fiber, and multiple single-mode channels, such as an array of single-mode fibers.
What is the operating principle of a photonic lantern?
A photonic lantern works by creating a gradual (adiabatic) transition that converts the multiple spatial modes of a multimode waveguide into the fundamental modes of several separate single-mode waveguides. For optimal low-loss performance, the number of supported modes in the multimode section should match the number of single-mode ports.
What are the main applications of photonic lanterns?
How are photonic lanterns fabricated?
Common methods include heating and tapering a bundle of single-mode fibers until they fuse into a multimode core, tapering a multi-core fiber, or using laser writing to create the waveguide structure inside a glass chip.
Why are photonic lanterns important for astronomy?
In astrophotonics, they allow faint, multimode starlight to be split into multiple single-mode fibers. This enables the use of high-performance fiber Bragg gratings to filter out unwanted atmospheric emission lines, which is not effective in a multimode fiber.
What is a mode-selective photonic lantern?
A mode-selective photonic lantern is a specialized type where each single-mode port corresponds to a specific spatial mode of the multimode fiber. This allows for the separation or targeted excitation of individual modes, which is crucial for advanced applications like mode-division multiplexing.
How can photonic lanterns be used for beam combining?
They can incoherently combine power from multiple sources into a single multimode output. For coherent beam combining, multiple single-mode inputs with controlled phases are combined to produce a high-brightness, single-mode output from the multimode port.
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