The experimental performance of a two-element phased array of multiline cw HF chemical lasers in the master oscillator with power amplifier (MOPA) configuration has been measured. The mutual coherence of the two amplified beams was inferred from measurements of the visibility of interference fringes obtained when the beams were overlapped in the near field. When the optical path difference for the two beams was minimized, multiline visibilities of 0.90 +/- 0.02 were measured. White light interferometry was used to equalize the optical path lengths. Spectral mismatch between the master oscillator output and the amplifier's preferred gain distribution affected neither the amplification factor nor the mutual coherence of the amplified beams. The effect of spatial coherence of the master oscillator beam on these near field measurements and the eventual requirement of far field measurements to precisely optimize path lengths are discussed. Spectra data, amplification factors, and mutual coherence measurements are shown, and the resulting phased array far field performance is presented.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.