Multiplexed Single-Mode Wavelength-to-Time Mapping of Multimode Light

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method using photonic lanterns with multicore fibres to efficiently convert multimode light into single-mode wavelength-to-time signals, enabling advanced photon detection applications.

Contribution

It presents a new multiplexed wavelength-to-time mapping technique using multicore fibre photonic lanterns coupled to SPAD arrays, enhancing multimode light analysis capabilities.

Findings

Successful demonstration of 121-channel wavelength-to-time conversion

Efficient coupling of multimode light to single-photon detectors

Potential applications in spectroscopy, LIDAR, and quantum optics

Abstract

We demonstrate that photonic lanterns based on tapered multicore fibres provide an efficient way to couple multimode states of light to a two-dimensional array of Single-Photon Avalanche Detectors (SPADs), each of which has its own Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) for Time-Correlated Single-Photon-Counting (TCSPC). Exploiting this capability, we demonstrate multiplexed single-mode wavelength-to-time conversion of multimode states of light using a multicore-fibre photonic lantern with 121 single-mode cores, coupled in a one-to-one fashion to 121 SPADS on a 32 $\times$ 32 pixel CMOS SPAD array. The application of photonic lanterns for coupling multimode light to SPAD arrays in this manner may find wide-ranging applications in areas such as Raman spectroscopy, coherent LIDAR and quantum optics.