Towards High-Throughput Visible Photonic Lanterns for the EMARCOT Project
Abstract
Photonic EMARCOT is an innovative project involving Spanish, German and Australian research institutes that aims to integrate multiple Optical Tube Assemblies (OTAs) using photonic lanterns. The "Pathfinder" prototype, featuring seven OTAs with a 1.1-meter effective aperture, will feed a spectrograph at the Calar Alto Observatory, with first light expected in 2026. We report the fabrication and experimental evaluation of a custom 7x1 multi-mode photonic lantern (MMPL) developed for this framework, featuring seven 25 um core multi-mode inputs merging into a single 50 um core multi-mode output optimized for the visible wavelength range (400-700 nm). Optical characterization centered at 600 nm reveals exceptional channel-to-channel uniformity, with statistical variations close to zero across both bare-fiber and connectorized MMPL configurations. However, the total baseline throughput of this initial device was limited to below 4%. From the refractive index studies, this low throughput is attributed to severe refractive index mismatch between the internal fiber cladding geometry and the structural capillary, which suppresses total internal reflection during the tapering transition. This work establishes an important diagnostic baseline that highlights the necessary fabrication tolerances needed to improve future high-throughput manufacturing processes for precision radial-velocity astronomy.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{nayak2026towards,
title = {{Towards High-Throughput Visible Photonic Lanterns for the EMARCOT Project}},
author = {Abani Shankar Nayak and Julius Goehring and Marina Centenera-Merino and Pedro José Amado-González and David Pérez-Medialdea and Mabel Ruiz-Lopez and Francisco J. Pozuelos and Miguel Andrés Sánchez Carrasco and José Luis Ortiz Moreno and Jesús Aceituno-Castro and Stefan Cikota and Javier Flores and Christopher Betters and Andrew Ross-Adams and Sergio Leon-Saval and Martin M. Roth and Kalaga Madhav},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.10900},
eprint = {2609.10900},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.10900},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Towards High-Throughput Visible Photonic Lanterns for the EMARCOT Project
AU - Abani Shankar Nayak
AU - Julius Goehring
AU - Marina Centenera-Merino
AU - Pedro José Amado-González
AU - David Pérez-Medialdea
AU - Mabel Ruiz-Lopez
AU - Francisco J. Pozuelos
AU - Miguel Andrés Sánchez Carrasco
AU - José Luis Ortiz Moreno
AU - Jesús Aceituno-Castro
AU - Stefan Cikota
AU - Javier Flores
AU - Christopher Betters
AU - Andrew Ross-Adams
AU - Sergio Leon-Saval
AU - Martin M. Roth
AU - Kalaga Madhav
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/09
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.10900
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.10900
AB - Photonic EMARCOT is an innovative project involving Spanish, German and Australian research institutes that aims to integrate multiple Optical Tube Assemblies (OTAs) using photonic lanterns. The "Pathfinder" prototype, featuring seven OTAs with a 1.1-meter effective aperture, will feed a spectrograph at the Calar Alto Observatory, with first light expected in 2026. We report the fabrication and experimental evaluation of a custom 7x1 multi-mode photonic lantern (MMPL) developed for this framework, featuring seven 25 um core multi-mode inputs merging into a single 50 um core multi-mode output optimized for the visible wavelength range (400-700 nm). Optical characterization centered at 600 nm reveals exceptional channel-to-channel uniformity, with statistical variations close to zero across both bare-fiber and connectorized MMPL configurations. However, the total baseline throughput of this initial device was limited to below 4%. From the refractive index studies, this low throughput is attributed to severe refractive index mismatch between the internal fiber cladding geometry and the structural capillary, which suppresses total internal reflection during the tapering transition. This work establishes an important diagnostic baseline that highlights the necessary fabrication tolerances needed to improve future high-throughput manufacturing processes for precision radial-velocity astronomy.
ER -