Photonic lanterns

Multimode optical fibers have been primarily (and almost solely) used as “light pipes” in short distance telecommunications and in remote and astronomical spectroscopy. The modal properties of the multimode waveguides are rarely exploited and mostly discussed in the context of guiding light. Until recently, most photonic applications in the applied sciences have arisen from developments in telecommunications. However, the photonic lantern is one of several devices that arose to solve problems in astrophotonics and space photonics. Interestingly, these devices are now being explored for use in telecommunications and are likely to find commercial use in the next few years, particularly in the development of compact spectrographs. Photonic lanterns allow for a low-loss transformation of a multimode waveguide into a discrete number of single-mode waveguides and vice versa, thus enabling the use of single-mode photonic technologies in multimode systems. In this review, we will discuss the theory and function of the photonic lantern, along with several different variants of the technology. We will also discuss some of its applications in more detail. Furthermore, we foreshadow future applications of this technology to the field of nanophotonics.