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 and brightness, 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 the at least one composite beam from the beam-combining element, and feeds back through the beam-combining element to each of the emitters at least a portion of the light, the portion having a selected wavelength and containing a respective contribution from each of the emitters,wherein mutually coherent operation of all the emitters is achieved such that each of the emitters lases at the selected wavelength with a phase difference that results in a coherent output beam from the system that effectively combines the powers from each of the emitters such that the output beam has a brightness that is greater than the brightnesses of the individual 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
30 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 and brightness, 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 the at least one composite beam from the beam-combining element, and feeds back through the beam-combining element to each of the emitters at least a portion of the light, the portion having a selected wavelength and containing a respective contribution from each of the emitters, wherein mutually coherent operation of all the emitters is achieved such that each of the emitters lases at the selected wavelength with a phase difference that results in a coherent output beam from the system that effectively combines the powers from each of the emitters such that the output beam has a brightness that is greater than the brightnesses of the individual 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:
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a three-dimensional optical element having a Bragg grating formed therein, wherein the optical element receives respective light beams emitted from each of a plurality of laser emitters, and wherein the Bragg grating reflects a respective narrowband portion of each of the received light beams, wherein the reflected narrowband portions are fed back into the emitters in such a way that each of the emitters receives narrowband light from every other emitter, and wherein mutually coherent operation of all the emitters is achieved such that each of the emitters lases at the same wavelength. - 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 optical element having a Bragg grating formed therein, wherein the three-dimensional optical element 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 all of the emitters, wherein mutually coherent operation of all the emitters is achieved such that each of the emitters lases at the same wavelength.
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29. A system for producing mutually-coherent operation of a plurality of light emitters, each of the emitters outputting a respective power and brightness, 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 the at least one composite beam from the beam-combining element, and feeds back through the beam-combining element at least a portion of the light containing the respective contribution from each of the emitters, the portion having a selected wavelength, wherein the portion is fed back into the emitters in such a way that each of the emitters receives narrowband light from every other emitter, and wherein mutually coherent operation of the plurality of emitters is achieved such that each of the emitters lases at the selected wavelength with a phase difference that results in a coherent output beam from the system that effectively combines the powers from each of the emitters such that the output beam has a brightness that is greater than the brightnesses of the individual emitters. - View Dependent Claims (30)
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Specification