Ultrafast laser inscription: an enabling technology for astrophotonics

Abstract

The application of photonics to astronomy offers major advantages in the area of highly-multiplexed spectroscopy, especially when applied to extremely large telescopes. These include the suppression of the near-infrared night-sky spectrum [J. Bland-Hawthorn et al, Opt. Express 12, 5902 (2004), S. G. Leon-Saval et al, Opt. Lett. 30, 2545 (2005)] and the miniaturisation of spectrographs so that they may integrated into the light-path of individual spatial samples [J. Bland-Hawthorn et al, Proc SPIE 6269, 62690N (2006)]. Efficient collection of light from the telescope requires multimode optical fibres and three-dimensional photonic devices. We propose ultrafast laser inscription (ULI) [R. R. Thomson et al, Opt. Express 15, 11691 (2007)] as the best technology to fabricate 3D photonic devices for astrophotonic applications.

Published in Optics Express

References in corpus (2)

• The case for OH suppression at near-infrared wavelengths
• Instruments without optics: an integrated photonic spectrograph

Cited by in corpus (22)

• The Photonic Lantern
• Low bend loss waveguides enable compact, efficient 3D photonic chips
• Three-dimensional mid-infrared photonic circuits in chalcogenide glass
• Characterization and on-sky demonstration of an integrated photonic spectrograph for astronomy
• Integrated photonic building blocks for next-generation astronomical instrumentation II: the multimode to single mode transition
• Photonic spatial reformatting of stellar light for diffraction-limited spectroscopy
• Astrophotonic Spectrographs
• 2023 Astrophotonics Roadmap: pathways to realizing multi-functional integrated astrophotonic instruments
• Astrointerferometry with discrete optics
• Multiband processing of multimode light: combining 3D photonic lanterns with waveguide Bragg gratings
• Astrophotonic spectroscopy: defining the potential advantage
• Integrated optics prototype beam combiner for long baseline interferometry in the L and M bands
• Laser-written vapor cells for chip-scale atomic sensing and spectroscopy
• Photonic lattices for astronomical interferometry
• Astronomical photonics in the context of infrared interferometry and high-resolution spectroscopy
• Beam combination schemes and technologies for the Planet Formation Imager (PFI)
• Modal analysis using photonic lanterns coupled to arrays of waveguides
• Six-telescope integrated optics beam combiner fabricated using ultrafast laser inscription for J- and H-band astronomy
• Asgard/NOTT: L-band nulling interferometry at the VLTI -- III. The mid-infrared integrated optics beam combiner for NOTT
• Astrophotonics -- current capabilities and the road ahead
• Astrophotonic Technologies
• Astrochemistry and Astrophotonics for an Antarctic Observatory