Multi-kW coherent combining of fiber lasers seeded with pseudo random phase modulated light

Angel Flores; Thomas Ehrehreich; Roger Holten; Brian Anderson; Iyad Dajani

doi:10.1117/12.2213423

11 March 2016 Multi-kW coherent combining of fiber lasers seeded with pseudo random phase modulated light

Angel Flores, Thomas Ehrehreich, Roger Holten, Brian Anderson, Iyad Dajani

Proceedings Volume 9728, Fiber Lasers XIII: Technology, Systems, and Applications; 97281Y (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2213423
Event: SPIE LASE, 2016, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

We report efficient coherent beam combining of five kilowatt-class fiber amplifiers with a diffractive optical element (DOE). Based on a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) configuration, the amplifiers were seeded with pseudo random phase modulated light. Each non-polarization maintaining fiber amplifier was optically path length matched and provides approximately 1.2 kW of near diffraction-limited output power (measured M²<1.1). Consequently, a low power sample of each laser was utilized for active linear polarization control. A low power sample of the combined beam after the DOE provided an error signal for active phase locking which was performed via Locking of Optical Coherence by Single-Detector Electronic-Frequency Tagging (LOCSET). After phase stabilization, the beams were coherently combined via the 1x5 DOE. A total combined output power of 4.9 kW was achieved with 82% combining efficiency and excellent beam quality (M²<1.1). The intrinsic DOE splitter loss was 5%. Similarly, losses due in part to non-ideal polarization, ASE content, uncorrelated wavefront errors, and misalignment errors contributed to the efficiency reduction.

Citation Download Citation

Angel Flores, Thomas Ehrehreich, Roger Holten, Brian Anderson, and Iyad Dajani "Multi-kW coherent combining of fiber lasers seeded with pseudo random phase modulated light", Proc. SPIE 9728, Fiber Lasers XIII: Technology, Systems, and Applications, 97281Y (11 March 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2213423

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