100-kW Coherently Combined Nd:YAG MOPA Laser Array

McNaught, S. J.; Asman, Charles P.; Injeyan, Hagop; Jankevics, Andrew J.; Johnson, Adam M.; Jones, Gina C.; Komine, H.; Machan, J.; Marmo, Jay; McClellan, M.; Simpson, R.; Sollee, J.; Valley, Marcy; Weber, M.; Weiss, S.

doi:10.1364/fio.2009.fthd2

Cited by 28 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The OHD phase locking method has been successfully implemented on numerous fiberand slab-based laser arrays to demonstrate coherent beam combination [2,5,13,20]. As shown in Figure 1.7, control bandwidths in excess of 10 kHz are readily attainable with this approach, with RMS phase residuals s w < 0.1 rad in the presence of phase excursions exceeding 10 4 rad/s.…”

Section: Optical Heterodyne Detectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 2009, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems demonstrated 105 kW continuous power output with record brightness from a solid-state laser system by coherently combining an array of seven Nd:YAG zigzag slab amplifier chains under the Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) program [5]. The highstimulated emission cross section of Nd:YAG allowed efficient laser extraction and high amplifier gain with relatively low optical intensities.…”

Section: Coherent Beam Combining Of Zigzag Slab Lasersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems adopted an actively phaselocked approach to combine seven 15 kW Nd:YAG slab amplifier chains to demonstrate the world's first 100 kW electric laser with record-setting brightness [5]. Recently, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems adopted an actively phaselocked approach to combine seven 15 kW Nd:YAG slab amplifier chains to demonstrate the world's first 100 kW electric laser with record-setting brightness [5].…”

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confidence: 99%

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Engineering of Coherently Combined, High‐Power Laser Systems

Goodno

Rothenberg

2013

Coherent Laser Beam Combining

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In recent years, much effort has been expended toward scaling electric lasers to CW power levels on the order of 100 kW or greater [1]. The key challenge in such scaling is maintaining near-diffraction-limited (DL) beam quality (BQ) to enable tight focusing onto a distant target. Despite the maturation of scalable, diode-pumped laser amplifier technologies such as zigzag slabs [2] or fibers [3], thermal effects or optical nonlinearities currently limit near-DL output from single lasers to an order of magnitude lower power, around 10 kW.Actively phase-locked coherent beam combination (CBC) of N laser amplifiers seeded by a common master oscillator (MO) represents an engineerable approach toward scaling laser brightness B (loosely defined here as B $ power/BQ 2 ) beyond the limits of the underlying single-element laser technology. Ideally, the combined output behaves as if it were a single beam, and B is thereby increased by a factor of N over an unphased array or by a factor of N 2 over any individual laser [4].A compelling architectural advantage of CBC systems in comparison to singleaperture lasers of comparable power is the graceful degradation in response to failure of any gain element. This feature can be elucidated from the scaling of B $ N 2 , so the relative rate of change in brightness as individual lasers fail is 1/B(dB/dN) ¼ 2/N. Hence, for large arrays, the drop in brightness is gradual. For example, failure of 1 out of N ¼ 100 lasers would still allow a CBC system to continue operating at 98% of its original brightness.Active CBC with servo-based phase locking can be straightforwardly engineered for very high channel counts and for very high-power laser gain elements. Recently, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems adopted an actively phaselocked approach to combine seven 15 kW Nd:YAG slab amplifier chains to demonstrate the world's first 100 kW electric laser with record-setting brightness [5]. As of this writing, work is underway to extend this technology to achieve similar power levels in a CBC array of fiber lasers with improved BQ and efficiency as well as reduced size and weight [6,7].

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Section: Optical Heterodyne Detectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Coherent Beam Combining Of Zigzag Slab Lasersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Engineering of Coherently Combined, High‐Power Laser Systems

Goodno

Rothenberg

2013

Coherent Laser Beam Combining

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“…So far, many excellent results of CBC have been achieved by using different method with different correction devices [3~10] . In 2009, Northrop Grumman Corporation (NGC) unveiled their 105-kW system based on slab laser amplifiers by using heterodyne phase detecting technology with fiber phase modulator, but there was no tip/tilt correction in this experiment [3] . In 2012, National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) reported their 1.8kW system based on all-fiber amplifiers by SPGD algorithm with fiber phase modulator, there was also no tip/tilt correction [4] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical analysis of the convergence speed of the SPGD algorithm with two different perturbation methods in coherent beam combination using active segmented mirror

Tan

Luo

et al. 2015

SPIE Proceedings

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ABSTRICTAn introduction was given to the active segmented mirror(ASM) used in coherent beam combination firstly. Based on the actuator distribution of ASM, the computational formula between the perturbation voltage of each actuator and the perturbation of piston or tip/tilt was acquired. Then the numerical analysis of correction process with two different perturbation ways in SPGD algorithm was carried on. By comparing the two correction processes, it was found that the convergence speed of the second method is 25 times as fast as the first one when there only existed piston error between the two beamlets, while the convergence speed was almost the same when there only existed tip/tilt error, and the convergence speed is 5 times when there existed both piston and tip/tilt error.

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“…The high-power solid-state laser has been widely studies because of its compact structure, high efficiency, good beam quality, and good operation stability [1,2]. However, thermal effects, such as thermally induced stress and beam aberration in solid laser materials, are the main factors that limit the output power and beam quality of the solid-state laser [3][4][5][6][7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of wavefront aberration induced by turbulent flow field in liquid-convection-cooled disk laser

Liu

et al. 2013

J. Opt. Soc. Am. B

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The wavefront aberration induced by turbulent flow field in liquid-convection-cooled disk laser is numerically analyzed. By using the large-eddy-simulation model, the structure of time-random turbulent eddies are described and the effects of turbulent eddies on wavefront aberration are illustrated, indicating that the wavefront aberration varies primarily with the temperature field. By integrating the thermal-induced variations of the refractive index along the laser beam path within the flowing liquid, the two-dimensional wavefront aberration is obtained, showing that the wavefront aberration occurs mainly at the thermal boundary layer, where the temperature gradient is large.

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100-kW Coherently Combined Nd:YAG MOPA Laser Array

Cited by 28 publications

References 3 publications

Engineering of Coherently Combined, High‐Power Laser Systems

Engineering of Coherently Combined, High‐Power Laser Systems

Numerical analysis of the convergence speed of the SPGD algorithm with two different perturbation methods in coherent beam combination using active segmented mirror

Analysis of wavefront aberration induced by turbulent flow field in liquid-convection-cooled disk laser

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