Professor Stephen Eikenberry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAnd the list goes on, from accurately identifying and characterizing space debris, to improving communication between satellites, to tracking stars and planets that orbit black holes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could potentially image forming planets around baby stars in a way that hasn’t been done before,\u201d Eikenberry says.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s research focuses on two key technologies: photonic lanterns and heterodyne spectroscopy. By capturing, measuring and combining light waves in specific ways, researchers can synthesize images at scales and resolutions never seen before, further unlocking the mysteries of our reality.<\/p>\n
Nearly a third of CREOL\u2019s faculty members are involved, including professors Rodrigo Amezcua-Correa, Miguel Bandres, Peter Delfyett, Darren Hudson and Axel Sch\u00fclzgen. As of Spring 2025, the CREOL astrophotonics team includes more than 20 undergraduate students and 15 doctoral students. One of them is Tara Crowe, who says she decided to pursue her doctorate at UCF because of the program.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou either do optics, or you do astronomy,\u201d Crowe says. \u201cAnd I really wanted to do both. Surprisingly, there are very few programs that do both.\u201d<\/p>\n
The research funding will also make an impact beyond CREOL, providing opportunities for physics students to participate in the projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cCREOL has a very strong history of innovating brand-new technologies,\u201d Eikenberry says, \u201cAnd we\u2019re getting some traction. We\u2019re getting some real motion there.\u201d<\/p>\n
A New Type of Telescope<\/h2>\n Imagine a telescope with an aperture the size of the entire Earth. What would we be able to see?<\/p>\n
But before looking up, Eikenberry says look down \u2014 at your car stereo.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour radio in your car \u2014 you tune it. It\u2019s got an oscillator,\u201d Eikenberry says. \u201cYou turn your dial, and that\u2019s adjusting your frequency. Meanwhile, you\u2019ve got an antenna that\u2019s receiving all the stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the frequency being received by the antenna matches the frequency on your dial, you hear a clear sound.<\/p>\n
This roughly describes how the Event Horizon Telescope works to observe the cosmos. It\u2019s a network of radio telescopes around the globe that combine their individual signals to produce a single image. This is how the first direct image of a black hole was produced in 2019.<\/p>\n
Radio waves are a form of electromagnetic radiation, or simply, light. The CREOL team\u2019s goal is to apply the same concept the Event Horizon Telescope uses \u2014 but for infrared light.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot more interesting things give off infrared or visible light, than give off radio waves,\u201d Eikenberry says.<\/p>\n
For example, the James Webb Space Telescope has produced world-famous infrared images, including Webb\u2019s First Deep Field<\/em>, the deepest infrared look into the universe to date.<\/p>\nEikenberry says creating a global array of infrared telescopes will produce images with a resolution 10,000 times greater than radio telescopes can. However, combining and processing the telescopes\u2019 data will require some photonic innovation.<\/p>\n
CREOL is working with five other institutions as part of a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI), including The University of Texas at Austin, University of Colorado Boulder, Yale University, University of Southern California and University of Michigan. The Air Force Office of Scientific Research is overseeing the award sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense.<\/p>\n
Eikenberry and Delfyett have been allocated $2 million to investigate the concept.<\/p>\n
Delfyett says the key to \u201ctuning in\u201d the telescopes lies in laser frequency combs.<\/p>\nPegasus Professor Peter Delfyett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cA laser frequency comb is a light source that produces many different colors,\u201d Delfyett says. \u201cAnd the different colors add together to make very short bursts of light, which can be utilized for length or time metrology, meaning that we’re able to measure the distance between these two telescopes.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that precision is paramount.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we want these telescopes on the opposite side of the Earth to be able to look at some object, take the information and add it together to have improved resolution, we must know that distance to the accuracy of the wavelength of light.\u201d<\/p>\n
The result: an infrared or near-infrared telescope with a virtual aperture the size of our planet, or bigger.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will give us an unprecedented ability to explore and measure the cosmos,\u201d Delfyett says.<\/p>\n
Photonic Lanterns Light the Way<\/h2>\n Delfyett says the same technology can be used to look back down on the Earth. Using a constellation of small satellites, the images that could be captured would have the same signature, ultra-high resolution.<\/p>\n
This technology has broad applications, including defense and environmental science. Delfyett says it could provide new high-resolution looks at forests, jungles, deserts and even three-dimensional cloud structures.<\/p>\n
On the ground, Eikenberry says the telescope array could provide the same close-up view of objects in orbit, including a precise observation not just of the outside \u2014 but the inside<\/em> of the International Space Station, which is in low-Earth orbit.<\/p>\n\u201cWith this technology, we would look through the window and read the 10-point font of the text message a person just got from his wife back home,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Eikenberry says this could prove useful in identifying cracks and other defects on expensive equipment high above the Earth\u2019s surface, which are major concerns for the safety of people and equipment in orbit.<\/p>\n
\u201cA piece of space debris the size of a big marble can knock out your billion-dollar satellite,\u201d Eikenberry says. \u201cAnd right now, with the classical diffraction limit, even with adaptive optics to remove the blurring of the atmosphere, you still only get images that are limited by the diffraction of the telescope. You see a blurry thing about the size of a softball, you don’t know, is that a collection of little rocks? Is it a ball of dust? A ball of dust you don’t really care too much about, but a bunch of rocks matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is where photonic lanterns come in. While the technology has existed for a while, Eikenberry\u2019s team is now researching how to use them as quantum-inspired imagers to attain the high resolution necessary to characterize space debris. Considering light as a wave, photonic lanterns can measure both the brightness and phase of the light, which Eikenberry says is necessary to sharpen the picture.<\/p>\n
Looking further out into the depths of space, while we can detect many distant objects (using radio telescopes and other methods), we can\u2019t necessarily produce a visual image of them. Advances in photonic lanterns could change that.<\/p>\n
Eikenberry points to the formation of new planets around other stars: \u201cRight now, we kind of know they’re there by looking at their spectral signatures, but we could be able to actually take a picture and resolve it \u2014 and figuring that out would be a huge leap forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Using this light-based technology could also lead to more answers about the darkness in the universe. Black holes, Eikenberry says, can accumulate material from neighboring stars, and shoot it out in a stream that moves at 99% of the speed of light \u2014 but why that happens remains unclear.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a big mystery that’s been around since the 1960s,\u201d he says, \u201cWhy does it shoot out little, narrow streams of material out of the deepest potential wells in the universe?\u201d<\/p>\n
Capturing visual and infrared images could lead to new revelations in astronomy, astrophysics and even astrobiology, the researcher says.<\/p>\n
The Future of Space Photonics<\/h2>\n Eikenberry says the spirit of collaboration at CREOL is what makes the advances in this emerging field possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re sort of tying it all together now and making this big push into space photonics and astrophotonics, in particular,\u201d Eikenberry says.<\/p>\n
The expanding research areas support UCF President Alexander N. Cartwright\u2019s mission to strengthen the university\u2019s position as a leader in space research. This is implemented through the Space and Planetary Instrumentation, Commercialization, and Education (SPICE) initiative, managed by the Florida Space Institute providing support to multiple colleges and departments, including CREOL for the advancement of space photonics. The SPICE project aims to attract even more funding by empowering researchers with the resources and facilities they need to conduct advanced experiments for space research and develop emerging space technologies.<\/p>\n
CREOL also has plans to hire a space photonics instructor, and the program\u2019s growth will allow more students to explore their passion for the space industry.<\/p>\n
Crowe says her work on the team as a CREOL student means more than just making progress toward her doctorate.<\/p>\n
“It makes you feel like you’re doing something that’s going to take you somewhere,\u201d Crowe says.<\/p>\n
About the Researchers<\/h2>\n Eikenberry earned his doctoral degree in astronomy at Harvard University in 1997. He joined CREOL in 2021 after serving as a professor of astronomy at the University of Florida and before that, Cornell University. Eikenberry\u2019s research group at CREOL focuses on studying black holes, neutron stars, dark energy and extrasolar planets. He also specializes in building astronomical instruments to observe them.<\/p>\n
Delfyett has authored more than 200 scientific publications, holds 45 U.S. patents, and was recently inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame. He is UCF’s first sitting faculty member to be inducted into the National Academy of Engineering. He serves as the Director of the Townes Laser Institute and his contributions have been extensive, spanning the underlying physics, device development and application of semiconductor-based mode-locked laser diodes.<\/p>\n
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