Demonstration of high-efficiency photonic lantern couplers for PolyOculus
Abstract
The PolyOculus technology produces large-area-equivalent telescopes by using fiber optics to link modules of multiple semi-autonomous, small, inexpensive, commercial-off-the-shelf telescopes. Crucially, this scalable design has construction costs that are > --> 10 × lower than equivalent traditional large-area telescopes. We have developed a novel, to the best of our knowledge, photonic lantern approach for the PolyOculus fiber optic linkages that potentially offers substantial advantages over previously considered free-space optical linkages, including much higher coupling efficiencies. We have carried out the first laboratory tests of a photonic lantern prototype developed for PolyOculus, and demonstrated broadband efficiencies of ∼ 91 % , confirming the outstanding performance of this technology.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jun 14, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1364/ao.424152
Entities
People
- Christina D. Moraitis
- Juan Carlos Alvarado-zacarias
- Rodrigo Amezcua-correa
- Sarik Jeram
- Stephen S Eikenberry
Organizations
- Army Research Office
- National Science Foundation
- University of Central Florida
- University of Florida