Multicore fibers are gaining growing attention in astronomy. The two main attributes which make them attractive for astronomy are that they reduce the distance between cores and hence have a superior fill factor to other approaches and they offer the possibility to transport light in many channels with the overhead of only having to handle a single fiber. These properties are being exploited to realize miniature integral field units that can transport light from different regions in a focal plane to a spectrograph for example. Here we offer an overview of several applications where multicore fibers are now being considered and applied to astronomical observations to enhance scientific yield.
Categories: astro-ph.IM