The beam quality of coherent beam combing (CBC) is significantly affected by the beam
array schemes, which are regular hexagon arrays in most research.
Here, we propose a bio-inspired Fermat spiral array (FSA) for
large-array CBC, for the first time to our knowledge. The far-field
distribution and beam quality of CBC with various designed FSAs was
investigated numerically and experimentally; the simulated and
experimental results agreed with each other. The power in the bucket
(PIB) increased with the central space density of the FSA,
accompanying by the weakening of the far-field sidelobes. In addition,
for the FSA with constant space density, the PIB increased, and
sidelobes weakened with the increase of the array filling factor. The
FSA could effectively improve the PIB and weaken the sidelobe of the
CBC far field by the aperiodic and nonuniform space density
arrangement, compared to the regular arrays. These results provide a
new approach for the beam arrangement of large-array CBC.