Experimental and on-sky demonstration of spectrally dispersed wavefront sensing using a photonic lantern

• DOI: 10.1364/ol.551624
• Publication Date: 2025-03-24T12:11:59Z
• Authors: Jonathan Lin; Michael P. Fitzge...; Yinzi Xin; Yoo Jung Kim; Olivier Guyon; Barnaby Norris; Christopher Betters; Sergio Leon-Saval; Kyohoon Ahn; Vincent Deo; Julien Lozi; Sébastien Vievard; Daniel Levinstein; Steph Sallum; Nemanja Jovanovic

Adaptive optics (AO) systems are critical in any application where highly resolved imaging or beam control must be performed through a dynamic medium. Such applications include astronomy and free-space optical communications, where light propagates through the atmosphere, as well as medical microscopy and vision science, where light propagates through biological tissues. Recent works have demonstrated common-path wavefront sensors (WFSs) for adaptive optics using the photonic lantern (PL), a slowly varying waveguide that can efficiently couple multi-moded light into single-mode fibers (SMFs). We use the SCExAO astrophotonics platform at the 8 m Subaru Telescope to show that spectral dispersion of lantern outputs can improve correction fidelity, culminating with an on-sky demonstration of real-time wavefront control. This is the first, to the best of our knowledge, result for either a spectrally dispersed or a photonic lantern wavefront sensor. Combined with the benefits offered by lanterns in precision spectroscopy, our results suggest the future possibility of a unified wavefront sensing spectrograph using compact photonic devices.