High-power, phased-locked, laser arrays
First Claim
1. A system for producing mutually-coherent operation of a plurality of light emitters, each of the emitters outputting a respective power, the system comprising:
- an optical system that mixes respective beams received from each of the plurality of emitters;
a beam-combining element that receives the mixed beams and forms at least one composite beam containing a respective contribution from each of the emitters; and
a wavelength-selective output coupler that receives a single optical path output from the beam-combining element, and feeds back through the beam-combining element to the emitters at least a portion of the light received along the optical path, the portion having a selected wavelength, wherein coherent operation of all the emitters is achieved with a phase difference that results in a coherent output beam from the system that effectively combines the powers from each of the emitters.
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Accused Products
Abstract
High-power, phased-locked, laser arrays as disclosed herein utilize a system of optical elements that may be external to the laser oscillator array. Such an external optical system may achieve mutually coherent operation of all the emitters in a laser array, and coherent combination of the output of all the lasers in the array into a single beam. Such an “external gain harness” system may include: an optical lens/mirror system that mixes the output of all the emitters in the array; a holographic optical element that combines the output of all the lasers in the array, and an output coupler that selects a single path for the combined output and also selects a common operating frequency for all the coupled gain regions.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. A system for producing mutually-coherent operation of a plurality of light emitters, each of the emitters outputting a respective power, the system comprising:
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an optical system that mixes respective beams received from each of the plurality of emitters;
a beam-combining element that receives the mixed beams and forms at least one composite beam containing a respective contribution from each of the emitters; and
a wavelength-selective output coupler that receives a single optical path output from the beam-combining element, and feeds back through the beam-combining element to the emitters at least a portion of the light received along the optical path, the portion having a selected wavelength, wherein coherent operation of all the emitters is achieved with a phase difference that results in a coherent output beam from the system that effectively combines the powers from each of the emitters. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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2. A system for producing mutually-coherent operation of a plurality of light emitters, the system comprising:
a three-dimensional, Bragg grating element that receives respective light beams emitted from each of the emitters, reflects a respective narrowband portion of each of the received light beams, and feeds back the reflected narrowband portions into the emitters in such a way that narrowband light from each of the emitters is fed back into at least one other emitter of the plurality of emitters. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A system for producing mutually-coherent operation of a plurality of laser emitters, the system comprising:
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a lens that receives a respective emitted beam from each of the laser emitters, performs an optical Fourier transform on the emitted beams, and mixes the transformed beams in a focal plane of the lens;
a diffractive optical element positioned in the focal plane of the lens that forms a composite beam that contains a respective contribution from each of the emitted beams;
a path selector that allows the composite beam to pass therethrough along a selected optical path; and
a three-dimensional, Bragg grating element that receives the composite beam along the selected optical path, and causes at least a portion of the composite beam to be reflected back along the optical path through the path selector, such that the reflected portion is fed back through the diffractive optical element and the lens into the emitters in such a way that narrowband light from each of the emitters is fed back into multiple emitters.
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Specification