Self-Phase-Locked Distributed Gain Laser Architecture
optics
Self-Phase-Locked Distributed Gain Laser Architecture (GSC-TOPS-196)
Provides efficient, passive, and coherent beam combinations from distributed gain sources.
Overview
While both high power and high efficiency laser sources are desired for many applications, limitations on their development and use include power scaling among the many gain materials due to excessive optical intensity. Moreover, as power among many gain elements can be increased, combining the power efficiency has thusfar proven elusive.
The Technology
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has developed a laser architecture to coherently combine energy from spatially distributed gain sources. Using a combination of lenslet arrays (to split and combine separate beams) or diffractive optical elements, each source can be phase-matched into an effective single source.
Benefits
- Flexibility in laser system design
- Achieves both higher power and higher efficiency
Applications
- High power laser development
- Semiconductor optics systems
