We report the fabrication and characterization of prototype femtosecond-laser direct-written integrated photonic lanterns for operation in the mid-infrared (mid-IR). The devices were inscribed inside the bulk of a commercial gallium lanthanum sulphide (GLS) chalcogenide glass substrate and the characterization was performed using monochromatic light with a wavelength of 3.39 μm. We demonstrate that these proof-of-concept devices are capable of coupling specific multimode states of light into an array of single-modes, and vice-versa, with low-loss. In the future, instruments that utilize the single-moded output of such components may find applications in areas such as heterodyne spectroscopy, interferometry and remote sensing.

Date Published: 18 July 2014
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 9151, Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation, 915116 (18 July 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2056526

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9151:
Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation
Ramón Navarro; Colin R. Cunningham; Allison A. Barto, Editor(s)