Astrophotonics: molding the flow of light in astronomical instruments

TL;DR

Astrophotonics integrates photonic technologies into astronomical instruments, enabling higher resolution and performance for next-generation telescopes, with recent advancements like photonic lanterns and multi-core fibers expanding capabilities.

Contribution

This review highlights key technological developments in astrophotonics since 2009, emphasizing its growing role in advanced astronomical instrumentation and future space applications.

Findings

Photonic instruments achieve milliarcsec resolution at 2000 nm.

Development of photonic lanterns and multi-core fibers enhances instrument performance.

Astrophotonics is increasingly integrated into AO systems for ELTs.

Abstract

Since its emergence two decades ago, astrophotonics has found broad application in scientific instruments at many institutions worldwide. The case for astrophotonics becomes more compelling as telescopes push for AO-assisted, diffraction-limited performance, a mode of observing that is central to the next-generation of extremely large telescopes (ELTs). Even AO systems are beginning to incorporate advanced photonic principles as the community pushes for higher performance and more complex guide-star configurations. Photonic instruments like Gravity on the Very Large Telescope achieve milliarcsec resolution at 2000 nm which would be very difficult to achieve with conventional optics. While space photonics is not reviewed here, we foresee that remote sensing platforms will become a major beneficiary of astrophotonic components in the years ahead. The field has given back with the development of new technologies (e.g. photonic lantern, large area multi-core fibres) already finding widespread use in other fields; Google Scholar lists more than 400 research papers making reference to this technology. This short review covers representative key developments since the 2009 Focus issue on Astrophotonics.