Open AccessArray size scalability of passively coherently phased fiber laser arrays
Author(s) -
Wei Zung Chang,
Tsai Wei Wu,
Herbert G. Winful,
Almantas Galvanauskas
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.18.009634
Subject(s) - optics , beat (acoustics) , fiber laser , phased array , laser , wavelength , materials science , laser power scaling , power (physics) , physics , telecommunications , computer science , quantum mechanics , antenna (radio)
We explore, by means of experiments and simulation, the power combining efficiency and power fluctuation of coherently phased 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16-channel fiber-laser arrays using fused 50:50 single-mode couplers. The measured evolution of power combining efficiency with array size agrees with simulations based on a new propagation model. For our particular system the power fluctuations due to small wavelength-scale length variations are seen to scale with array size as N(3). Beat spectra support the notion that a lack of coherently-combined supermodes in arrays of increasing size leads to a decrease in combined-power efficiency.