Open AccessAll-fiber 7x1 signal combiner for incoherent laser beam combining
Author(s) -
Danny Noordegraaf,
Martin D. Maack,
Peter M. W. Skovgaard,
J. Johansen,
Frank Becker,
S. Belke,
Mats Blomqvist,
Jesper Lægsgaard
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
proceedings of spie, the international society for optical engineering/proceedings of spie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Conference proceedings
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.192
H-Index - 176
eISSN - 1996-756X
pISSN - 0277-786X
DOI - 10.1117/12.875078
Subject(s) - optics , fiber laser , materials science , laser , optical fiber , cladding (metalworking) , signal (programming language) , core (optical fiber) , double clad fiber , fiber , polarization maintaining optical fiber , optoelectronics , physics , fiber optic sensor , computer science , metallurgy , composite material , programming language
We demonstrate an all-fiber 7x1 signal combiner for incoherent laser beam combining. This is a potential key component for reaching several kW of stabile laser output power. The combiner couples the output from 7 single-mode (SM) fiber lasers into a single multi-mode (MM) fiber. The input signal fibers have a core diameter of 17 μm and the output MM fiber has a core diameter of 100 μm. In a tapered section light gradually leaks out of the SM fibers and is captured by a surrounding fluorine-doped cladding. The combiner is tested up to 2.5 kW of combined output power and only a minor increase in device temperature is observed. At an intermediate power level of 600 W a beam parameter product (BPP) of 2.22 mm x mrad is measured, corresponding to an M2 value of 6.5. These values are approaching the theoretical limit dictated by brightness conservation.
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