  Photonic lanterns rely on a close packed arrangement of single mode fibers,
which are tapered and fused into one multi-mode core. Topologically optimal
circle packing arrangements have been well studied. Using this, we fabricate
PLs with 19 and 37 SMFs showing tightly packed, ordered arrangements with
packing densities of 95 % and 99 % of theoretically achievable values, with
mean adjacent core separations of 1.03 and 1.08 fiber diameters, respectively.
We demonstrate that topological circle packing data is a good predictor for
optimal PL parameters.
