Multiplexed single-mode wavelength-to-time mapping of multimode light.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 28120822.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms14080 and PMC identifier 5288496.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
When an optical pulse propagates along an optical fibre, different wavelengths travel at different group velocities. As a result, wavelength information is converted into arrival-time information, a process known as wavelength-to-time mapping. This phenomenon is most cleanly observed using a single-mode fibre transmission line, where spatial mode dispersion is not present, but the use of such fibres restricts possible applications. Here we demonstrate that photonic lanterns based on tapered single-mode multicore fibres provide an efficient way to couple multimode light to an array of single-photon avalanche detectors, each of which has its own time-to-digital converter for time-correlated single-photon counting. Exploiting this capability, we demonstrate the multiplexed single-mode wavelength-to-time mapping of multimode light using a multicore fibre photonic lantern with 121 single-mode cores, coupled to 121 detectors on a 32 × 32 detector array. This work paves the way to efficient multimode wavelength-to-time mapping systems with the spectral performance of single-mode systems.