Coherent Beam Shaping with Multicore Fiber Photonic Lanterns

Multimode fibers (MMFs) can facilitate acquisition of higher resolution images than multicore fibers (MCFs) [1]. MMF imaging is hindered by the transmission matrix (TM) of the MMF changing if its path is altered, and access to the distal-end is required for recalibration, although work is ongoing to address this [2], [3]. In [4] we showed that an MCF terminated with a photonic lantern (PL) [5] may provide some of the sought-after advantages of MMF imaging. We also suggested they might enable interrogation of the TM without access to the multimode (MM) distal end for imaging modalities requiring coherent beam shaping. Here, we demonstrate that following calibration, polarization maintaining (PM) MCF PLs facilitate controlled coherent beam shaping at the distal end after the path of the PL is altered, using only information gained from the proximal end.