Sydney Photonics designs and manufactures fibre-based photonic lanterns for telecommunications, sensing, and scientific instrumentation.

**What is a photonic lantern?**

A photonic lantern is an optical device that provides efficient, low-loss conversion between multimode and single-mode optical fibres. Originally invented at the University of Bath in 2005, this technology enables applications ranging from high-capacity telecommunications networks to astronomical instrumentation.

**Our heritage**

Sydney Photonics was founded by the team that pioneered photonic lantern technology. Our co-founder, Professor Sergio Leon-Saval, is one of the original inventors. This direct lineage ensures that every device we manufacture embodies the deepest understanding of the underlying physics and fabrication techniques.

Spun out of the Sydney Astrophotonic Instrumentation Laboratory (SAIL), we bring two decades of research expertise to commercial applications.

**Our products**

We offer three standard photonic lantern configurations:
• PL-3: Three-port lantern for low-order mode conversion
• PL-7: Seven-port lantern balancing capacity with compact form factor
• PL-19: Nineteen-port lantern for high-capacity applications

All devices feature flexible connector options (FC, SMA, APC) and custom wavelength configurations.

**Applications**

Our photonic lanterns are used in:
• Telecommunications: Mode division multiplexing for increased fibre capacity
• Astronomy: Efficient starlight coupling into single-mode instruments
• Sensing: High-sensitivity distributed fibre sensing systems
• Free-space optical: Atmospheric turbulence mitigation for laser communications

**Contact us**

Email: info@sydneyphotonics.com
Web: sydneyphotonics.com.au

Sydney Photonics

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