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High-power, phased-locked, laser arrays

  • US 7,949,030 B2
  • Filed: 02/03/2006
  • Issued: 05/24/2011
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2005
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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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:

  • 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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