Phase-locked CO2 laser array using diagonal coupling of waveguide channels

Abstract

Continuous coupling of square-bore CO2 waveguide lasers by geometrical overlap in the diagonal direction has been used for phase locking of a five-channel array. A radio-frequency discharge excited device has produced 125 W in phase-locked operation, with power per channel equal to independent single channels. The dependence of phase-locking range on the coupling geometry, and dimensional tolerances has been demonstrated. The array radiates approximately 65% of its power in the axial lobe.

Phase coupling of optical phase-shifting array resonator slab waveguide CO2 lasers

“…where 02 is the angle between the propagating beam and the optical axis, the propagating distance r02 is written by r02 = (x_x1)2 +(Y-Yi)2 +12 (12) Considering the error of the slot's width , the intensity distribution of the fundamental waveguide mode through one round trip in the resonator is given by…”

“…Previously CO2 waveguide array research has concentrated on phase-locking to create high brightness laser beam. A number of techniques have been employed to couple the array channels to induce phase-locking, including waveguide inter-lacing [11], diagonal coupling [12], four-wave mixing[13}, the waveguide-confined Talbot effect [14], and the use ofspatial filters [15].…”

The influence of misalignment of an axisymmetrical folded-combined CO2 laser on output power

“…Examples of the lasers include the multi-channel slab CO 2 laser [1,2], the phase-locked radial array CO 2 laser [3,4], and the CO 2 waveguide laser [5,6]. Recently, a diffusion-cooled ASFC CO 2 laser has been proposed [7] and studied [8][9][10][11][12][13].…”

Misalignment analysis of combination-cylinder discharge CO_2 laser

“…The main high-power CO 2 lasers used for laser processing contain multichannel slab discharge CO 2 lasers [1][2][3][4][5], waveguide CO 2 lasers [6][7][8], transverse flow CW CO 2 lasers [9][10][11], fast axial flow CW CO 2 lasers [12][13][14], and axisymmetric-fold combination cavity (ASFC) CO 2 lasers [15][16][17][18][19][20]. The above CO 2 lasers have many advantages; for example, the waveguide and slab CO 2 lasers with output power of 500-1000 W have a small volume and can be fixed directly with machine tools for laser processing.…”

“…A new CO 2 laser [combination-cylinder discharge CO 2 laser (CCDCL)] is presented [21] to overcome the problems of the above CO 2 lasers [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. The discharge area of the CCDCL is a new combination cylinder, and the resonator mirror consists of two new combination mirrors.…”