Development of ultrafast laser inscribed astrophotonic components

Abstract

The rapid development of astronomical instrumentation has been aided by many innovative new photonic designs, which offer improvements in stability, precision, size and cost, scalability, etc. ─ the field of astrophotonics. A powerful technique enabling many of these astrophotonic devices, ultrafast laser inscription (ULI), creates highly localised and controlled refractive index modification, which guides the path of light in a very efficient manner. This thesis discusses three separate astrophotonic devices, each with a specific application, to demonstrate the versatility of ULI. Firstly, a reformatting device based on a photonic lantern and 3D ULI waveguide reformatting component, transforms a multimode telescope PSF to a diffraction-limited pseudo-slit. When used to feed a spectrograph, a significant reduction in modal noise ─ a limiting factor in high-resolution multimode fibre-fed spectrographs ─ is demonstrated, with the potential for improved near-infrared radial velocity observations. Secondly, a similar ULI reformatting device for an integral field unit, based on multicore fibre with affixed microlenses, may enable the direct imaging of exoplanets and characterisation of their atmospheres. Thirdly, a two-telescope K-band beam combiner based on ULI directional couplers with an achromatic 3dB splitting ratio is presented. Such a device will upgrade the stellar interferometry capabilities of the CHARA array.