Jerusalem, 11 March, 2026 (TPS-IL) — Israeli scientists have developed a microscopic optical device that can combine light from dozens of small semiconductor lasers into a single optical fiber with minimal energy loss, potentially simplifying high-power laser systems, optical communications, and sensing and imaging systems.
A team of researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem — led by Ph.D. student Yoav Dana under the guidance of Professor Dan M. Marom at the university’s Institute of Applied Physics — created a tiny 3D-printed device known as a photonic lantern that can merge light from many lasers into a single multimode optical fiber while preserving brightness. Their main breakthrough was showing that the device can efficiently combine light from lasers that emit multiple spatial modes — something earlier photonic lantern designs could not do.
In an optical fiber, light does not always travel as a single narrow beam. Instead, it can move through the fiber in different patterns across its cross-section. These patterns are called spatial modes. In a single-mode fiber, only one pattern of light can travel, while in a multimode fiber, several patterns can move at the same time, each taking a slightly different path through the fiber. A common analogy compares spatial modes to lanes in a tunnel: a narrow tunnel allows only one lane of traffic, while a wider tunnel allows several lanes, with each lane representing a different spatial mode carrying light through the fiber.
High-power laser systems often rely on combining light from many smaller lasers to achieve greater output. However, efficiently coupling these sources into a fiber has long posed a technical challenge, particularly when the lasers emit multiple spatial modes of light. Traditional photonic lanterns were designed for single-mode inputs, making them poorly suited for the multimode light produced by high-power vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser arrays (VCSELs), which are widely used in optical communications, sensing systems, and high-power industrial lasers.
The Hebrew University team solved this problem by designing a new type of multimode photonic lantern that allows multiple multimode laser sources to merge smoothly into a single multimode fiber through a carefully engineered optical transition.
A depiction of a microscale photonic lantern printed directly onto VCSEL chip. Credit Yoav Dana/TPS-IL
In experiments, the scientists demonstrated devices capable of combining 7, 19, and even 37 VCSEL lasers into a single fiber. Because each laser produces several spatial modes of light, the system was able to support up to 222 spatial modes in total.
Despite combining dozens of laser inputs, the devices remained extremely small. The entire photonic lantern structure is less than half a millimeter long, many orders of magnitude smaller than traditional optical multiplexing systems that rely on lenses and larger optical assemblies.
The devices also maintained high efficiency, with coupling losses as low as about 0.6 decibels for a 19-input device and about 0.8 decibels for a 37-input version.
The new photonic lanterns stand to transform high-power laser systems by combining the output of many small lasers into a single fiber, producing powerful, concentrated beams in a much smaller, more compact device than traditional systems. Their microscopic size and high efficiency make them ideal for applications where space is limited, enabling portable or miniaturized laser technologies that still deliver significant optical power.
Photonic lanterns could greatly increase the data capacity of fiber-optic networks and enable advances in optical communications, sensing, and scientific research. They support more precise measurements in medical imaging, LiDAR for autonomous vehicles and robotics, and can capture and channel complex light sources in astronomy.
The study, funded by the Israel Innovation Authority and conducted with Israeli company Civan Lasers, was published in the peer-reviewed Nature Communications.
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