The ultrashort lasers working in pulse-burst mode reveal great machining performance in recent years. The number of pulses in bursts effects greatly on the removal rate and roughness. To generate a more equal amplitud...The ultrashort lasers working in pulse-burst mode reveal great machining performance in recent years. The number of pulses in bursts effects greatly on the removal rate and roughness. To generate a more equal amplitude of pulses in burst with linear polarization output and time gap adjustable, we propose a new method by the harmonic beam combining(HBC).The beam combining is commonly used in adding pulses into the output beam while maintaining the pulse waveform and beam quality. In the HBC, dichroic mirrors are used to combine laser pulses of fundamental wave(FW) into harmonic wave(HW), and nonlinear crystals are used to convert the FW into HW. Therefore, HBC can add arbitrarily more HW pulses to generate pulse-burst in linear polarization with simple structure. The amplitude of each pulse in bursts can be adjusted the same to increase the stability of the burst, the time gap of each pulse can be adjusted precisely by proper time delay. Because HBC adds pulses sequentially, the peak power density of the burst is the same as each pulse, pulses can be combined without concern of back-conversion which often occurs in high peak power density. In the demonstration, the extendibility of HBC was verified by combining two beams with a third beam. The combined efficiency rates were larger than 99%, and the beam quality of each beam was maintained at M^(2)≈1.4.展开更多
Orbital-angular-momentum(OAM)multiplexing technology offers a significant dimension to enlarge communication capacity in free-space optical links.The coherent beam combining(CBC)system can simultaneously realize OAM m...Orbital-angular-momentum(OAM)multiplexing technology offers a significant dimension to enlarge communication capacity in free-space optical links.The coherent beam combining(CBC)system can simultaneously realize OAM multiplexing and achieve high-power laser output,providing substantial advantages for long-distance communication.Herein,we present an integrated CBC system for freespace optical links based on OAM multiplexing and demultiplexing technologies for the first time,to the best of our knowledge.A method to achieve flexible OAM multiplexing and efficient demultiplexing based on the CBC system is proposed and demonstrated both theoretically and experimentally.The experimental results exhibit a low bit error rate of 0.47%and a high recognition precision of 98.58%throughout the entire data transmission process.By employing such an ingenious strategy,this work holds promising prospects for enriching ultra-long-distance structured light communication in the future.展开更多
The performance of a laser weapon system based on coherent beam combining(CBC)depends on its propagation properties in the atmosphere.In this study,an analytical model based on partial coherent beam combining(PCBC)for...The performance of a laser weapon system based on coherent beam combining(CBC)depends on its propagation properties in the atmosphere.In this study,an analytical model based on partial coherent beam combining(PCBC)for assumed coherence coefficients between beams in a CBC lattice was developed.The Kolmogorov model of atmospheric turbulence and the Hufnagel-Valley model of C^(2)_(n) dependence on atmospheric parameters were implemented.Novel simplified metrics were proposed to assess the CBC performance.Several beam profiles(super-Gaussian,truncated Gaussian,etc.)and geometries were analyzed in terms of maximal intensity in the far field.An approximate formula for PCBC efficiency dependent on the Fried radius was proposed.The results of CBC modeling were compared to those of the Gaussian beam propagation model in a turbulent atmosphere.The dependence of CBC performance on the C^(2)_(n) parameter,range,and elevation angle was analyzed.It could be concluded that the application of CBC for medium and long range propagation is impractical without an effective adaptive optics system.展开更多
By employing three reflecting volume Bragg gratings, a near-infrared 4-channel spectral-beam-combining system is demonstrated to present 720 W combined power with a combining efficiency of 94.7%. The combined laser be...By employing three reflecting volume Bragg gratings, a near-infrared 4-channel spectral-beam-combining system is demonstrated to present 720 W combined power with a combining efficiency of 94.7%. The combined laser beam is near-diffraction-limited with a beam factor M^2-1.54. During this 4-channel beam-combining process, no special active cooling measures are used to evaluate the volume Bragg gratings as combining elements are under the higher power laser operation. Thermal expansion and period distortion are verified in a 2 k W 2-channel beam-combining process, and the heat issue in the transmission case is found to be more remarkable than that in the diffraction e-se. Transmitted and diffracted beams experience wave-front aberrations with different degrees, thus leading to distinct beam deterioration.展开更多
Coherent beam combining of two fibre amplifier chains with a total power of 260 W in a compact system using the stochastic parallel gradient descent （SPGD） algorithm is demonstrated. A 150 MHz linewidth fibre laser ...Coherent beam combining of two fibre amplifier chains with a total power of 260 W in a compact system using the stochastic parallel gradient descent （SPGD） algorithm is demonstrated. A 150 MHz linewidth fibre laser is built and introduced for high-power amplification to mitigate stimulated Brillouin scattering （SBS）. Compact high-power amplifier chains are built with low power all-fibre system and high-power bulk free-optics fibre amplifiers. When the total power is about 260 W, active phase-locking of two high-power amplifiers is demonstrated using the SPGD algorithm. In closed-loop, the power in the main lobe increases 1.68 times, the visibility is increased from 0 to 0.62, and the phase residual error is less than λ/10.展开更多
The generation of terahertz(THz) waves by focusing a femtosecond pulsed laser beam at a distance is able to overcome the strong absorption properties of air and has rapidly attracted the attention of industry. However...The generation of terahertz(THz) waves by focusing a femtosecond pulsed laser beam at a distance is able to overcome the strong absorption properties of air and has rapidly attracted the attention of industry. However, the poor directionality of the THz wave radiation generated by this method is not conducive to THz wave applications. By controlling the morphology of the ultrafast laser-excited plasma filament and its electron density distribution through coherent beam combining technology, we achieve direct THz beam shaping and are able to obtain THz wave radiation of Gaussian or arbitrary transverse distribution. The novel experimental approach proposed in this paper opens up the research field of direct THz wave shaping using plasma. Moreover, it innovates multi-parameter convergence algorithms and, by doing so, has the potential to find beam patterns with higher energy conversion efficiency and break the energy limit of THz waves emitted by lasers at high power.展开更多
We present the numerical and experimental study on the coherent beam combining of fibre amplifiers by means of simulated annealing （SA） algorithm. The feasibility is validated by the Monte Carlo simulation of correc...We present the numerical and experimental study on the coherent beam combining of fibre amplifiers by means of simulated annealing （SA） algorithm. The feasibility is validated by the Monte Carlo simulation of correcting static phase distortion using SA algorithm. The performance of SA algorithm under time-varying phase noise is numerically studied by dynamic simulation. It is revealed that the influence of phase noise on the performance of SA algorithm gets stronger with an increase in amplitude or frequency of phase noise; and the laser array that contains more lasers will be more affected from phase noise. The performance of SA algorithm for coherent beam combining is also compared with a widely used stochastic optimization algorithm, i.e., the stochastic parallel gradient descent （SPGD） algorithm. In a proof-of-concept experiment we demonstrate the coherent beam combining of two 1083~nm fibre amplifiers with a total output power of 12~W and 93% combining efficiency. The contrast of the far-field coherently combined beam profiles is calculated to be as high as 95%.展开更多
A novel scalable architecture for coherent beam combining with hybrid phase control involving passive phasing and active phasing in master oscillator-power amplifier configuration is presented. Wide-linewidth mutually...A novel scalable architecture for coherent beam combining with hybrid phase control involving passive phasing and active phasing in master oscillator-power amplifier configuration is presented. Wide-linewidth mutually injected passive phasing fibre laser arrays serve as master oscillators for the power amplifiers, and the active phasing using stochastic parallel gradient descent algorithm is induced. Wide-linewidth seed laser can suppress the stimulated Brillouin scattering effectively and improve the output power of the fibre laser amplifier, while hybrid phase control provides a robust way for in-phase mode coherent beam combining simultaneously. Experiment is performed by active phasing fibre laser amplifiers with passive phasing fibre ring laser array seed lasers. Power encircled in the main-lobe increases1.57 times and long-exposure fringe contrast is obtained to be 78% when the system evolves from passive phasing to hybrid phasing.展开更多
We demonstrate coherent beam combining of two tiled-aperture single-frequency fibre amplifiers with a total output power of 29.65 W by using the multi-dithering technique. The two laser beams are packaged closely by u...We demonstrate coherent beam combining of two tiled-aperture single-frequency fibre amplifiers with a total output power of 29.65 W by using the multi-dithering technique. The two laser beams are packaged closely by using free-space mirrors side by side into a tiled-aperture with a near-field fill factor of 62%. Active phase control of the amplifier is performed on commercially available digital lock-in amplifiers. Experimental results show that the power contained in the main-lobe in closed-loop is 1.72 times greater than that in open-loop, which is 86% for the ideal case. The fringe contrast of the far-field fringe pattern is as high as 80% when the system is in closed-loop. The beam quality of the combined beam is computed to he BQ = 1.48. The whole system in closed-loop performs well in a long-time observation.展开更多
A spectrum-tunable 650 nm semiconductor laser dense spectral beam combining(DSBC)system has been successfully realized for the first time,to the best of our knowledge.This system is constructed based on a dual-grating...A spectrum-tunable 650 nm semiconductor laser dense spectral beam combining(DSBC)system has been successfully realized for the first time,to the best of our knowledge.This system is constructed based on a dual-grating DSBC(DG-DSBC)module,which can realize DSBC with any preset spectrum width under ideal conditions.In this paper,three sets of spectrum-tunable examples are finally given.The combined spectra are stabilized at 4.89,8.04,and 10.17 nm,with a maximum beam combining efficiency of about 88.27%.The brightness of this system is improved by more than 71%compared with that of the traditional DSBC structure.展开更多
This study presents active coherent beam combining(CBC)of a pulsed laser based on sampling the intrapulse evaluation function.By precisely controlling the trigger sequence of an analog-to-digital converter,the fixed t...This study presents active coherent beam combining(CBC)of a pulsed laser based on sampling the intrapulse evaluation function.By precisely controlling the trigger sequence of an analog-to-digital converter,the fixed time point of the pulse light is sampled as an evaluation function for CBC.The active CBC of two fiber amplifiers with a 500 ns pulse width and a 10 k Hz repetition rate is experimentally demonstrated by applying a hill-climbing algorithm.The residual phase error is approximately λ/27.A coherent Doppler wind lidar(CDWL)based on CBC light source is verified.The experimental results verify the feasibility of using the pulsed CBC to improve the pulse energy of a CDWL without degrading performance.展开更多
Machine learning has already shown promising potential in tiled-aperture coherent beam combining(CBC)to achieve versatile advanced applications.By sampling the spatially separated laser array before the combiner and d...Machine learning has already shown promising potential in tiled-aperture coherent beam combining(CBC)to achieve versatile advanced applications.By sampling the spatially separated laser array before the combiner and detuning the optical path delays,deep learning techniques are incorporated into filled-aperture CBC to achieve single-step phase control.The neural network is trained with far-field diffractive patterns at the defocus plane to establish one-to-one phase-intensity mapping,and the phase prediction accuracy is significantly enhanced thanks to the strategies of sin-cos loss function and two-layer output of the phase vector that are adopted to resolve the phase discontinuity issue.The results indicate that the trained network can predict phases with improved accuracy,and phase-locking of nine-channel filled-aperture CBC has been numerically demonstrated in a single step with a residual phase ofλ/70.To the best of our knowledge,this is the first time that machine learning has been made feasible in filled-aperture CBC laser systems.展开更多
A hybrid cavity structure based on individual laser diode integrating coherent beam combining(CBC)and spectral beam combining(SBC)is demonstrated.The CBC structure is used to enhance laser output power while optimizin...A hybrid cavity structure based on individual laser diode integrating coherent beam combining(CBC)and spectral beam combining(SBC)is demonstrated.The CBC structure is used to enhance laser output power while optimizing beam quality,and the SBC structure is employed to further increase laser output power.An output power of 1.42 W was obtained at 0.55 A,with a high combining efficiency of 87.2%.Additionally,the brightness of this structure is 58.65 MW·cm^(-2)·sr^(-1),which is 3.66times that of a single laser diode.The entire structure provides a new approach for increasing the output power and optimizing the beam quality of the laser diode.展开更多
In this paper,we report a coherent beam combining(CBC)system that involves two thulium-doped all-polarization maintaining(PM)fiber chirped pulse amplifiers.Through phase-locking the two channels via a fiber stretcher ...In this paper,we report a coherent beam combining(CBC)system that involves two thulium-doped all-polarization maintaining(PM)fiber chirped pulse amplifiers.Through phase-locking the two channels via a fiber stretcher by using the stochastic parallel gradient descent(SPGD)algorithm,a maximum average power of 265 W is obtained,with a CBC efficiency of 81%and a residual phase error of λ/17.After de-chirping by a pair of diffraction gratings,the duration of the combined laser pulse is compressed to 690 fs.Taking into account the compression efficiency of 90%and the main peak energy proportion of 91%,the corresponding peak power is calculated to be 4 MW.The laser noise characteristics before and after CBC are examined,and the results indicate that the CBC would degrade the low frequency relative intensity noise(RIN),of which the integration is 1.74%in[100 Hz,2 MHz]at the maximum combined output power.In addition,the effects of the nonlinear spectrum broadening during chirped pulse amplification on the CBC efficiency are also investigated,showing that a higher extent of pulse stretching is effective in alleviating the spectrum broadening and realizing a higher output power with decent combining efficiency.展开更多
In this paper,a spectral beam combining(SBC)structure of multi-single emitters laser diode based on a polarization full feedback(PFF)external cavity is proposed and demonstrated.The maximum combining efficiency is 75....In this paper,a spectral beam combining(SBC)structure of multi-single emitters laser diode based on a polarization full feedback(PFF)external cavity is proposed and demonstrated.The maximum combining efficiency is 75.6%,which leads to an output power of 38.48 W,a degree of polarization(DOP)of 99.42%,and electro-optical conversion efficiency of 35.63%under continuous wave operation at a current of 8 A.Compared to the conventional SBC,the output power,the combining efficiency,the electro-optical conversion efficiency,and the DOP of the PFF-SBC structure present improvements of 5.73 W,11.26 percentage points,5.3 percentage points,and 7.26 percentage points,respectively.The results show that this SBC method can achieve a high efficiency and linearly polarized laser output of SBC,thereby making the subsequent polarization beam-combining efficiency approach the limit.展开更多
Red-green-blue(RGB)beam combiners are widely used in scenarios such as augmented reality/virtual reality(AR/VR),laser projection,biochemical detection,and other fields.Optical waveguide combiners have attracted extens...Red-green-blue(RGB)beam combiners are widely used in scenarios such as augmented reality/virtual reality(AR/VR),laser projection,biochemical detection,and other fields.Optical waveguide combiners have attracted extensive attention due to their advantages of small size,high multiplexing efficiency,convenient mass production,and low cost.An RGB beam combiner based on directional couplers is designed,with a core-cladding relative refractive index difference of 0.75%.The RGB beam combiner is optimized from the perspective of parameter optimization.Using the beam propagation method(BPM),the relationship between the performance of the RGB beam combiner and individual parameters is studied,achieving preliminary optimization of the device’s performance.The key parameters of the RGB beam combiner are optimized using the entropy weight-technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution TOPSIS method,establishing the optimal parameter scheme and further improving the device’s performance indicators.The results show that after optimization,the multiplexing efficiencies for red,green,and blue lights,as well as the average multiplexing efficiency,reached 99.17%,99.76%,96.63%and 98.52%,respectively.The size of the RGB beam combiner is 4.768 mm×0.062 mm.展开更多
We incorporate deep learning(DL)into tiled aperture coherent beam combining(CBC)systems for the first time,to the best of our knowledge.By using a well-trained convolutional neural network DL model,which has been cons...We incorporate deep learning(DL)into tiled aperture coherent beam combining(CBC)systems for the first time,to the best of our knowledge.By using a well-trained convolutional neural network DL model,which has been constructed at a non-focal-plane to avoid the data collision problem,the relative phase of each beamlet could be accurately estimated,and then the phase error in the CBC system could be compensated directly by a servo phase control system.The feasibility and extensibility of the phase control method have been demonstrated by simulating the coherent combining of different hexagonal arrays.This DL-based phase control method offers a new way of eliminating dynamic phase noise in tiled aperture CBC systems,and it could provide a valuable reference on alleviating the long-standing problem that the phase control bandwidth decreases as the number of array elements increases.展开更多
We propose a nonparallel double-grating structure in a spectral-beam combining technique, where two gratings are placed nonparallel satisfying the Littrow mount in the focal region of the convergent lens. The most att...We propose a nonparallel double-grating structure in a spectral-beam combining technique, where two gratings are placed nonparallel satisfying the Littrow mount in the focal region of the convergent lens. The most attractive advantage of this approach is that it will compress the spectral span into half of its original spectrum, which means the number of combined elements can be doubled in the gain range of diode lasers. Experimental results demonstrate that the CW output power of the combined beam is 30.9 W with a spectral span of 7.0 nm, compared with its original spectrum span of 13.6 nm, and the spectral beam combining efficiency is 70.5%. In consideration that a single grating could have a high efficiency of 〉97% in a bandwidth of over ten nanometers, the efficiency loss of the grating pair should be less than 6%, which is acceptable for most applications, so this method of using double gratings should be highly interesting for practical applications when a nearly doubled number of diode lasers could be combined into one single laser compared with the previous single-grating methods.展开更多
We studied the spectral beam combining[SBC]of a large optical cavity[LOC]laser array to achieve high-power and highbrightness laser output.We discussed the characteristics of the external cavity feedback efficiency an...We studied the spectral beam combining[SBC]of a large optical cavity[LOC]laser array to achieve high-power and highbrightness laser output.We discussed the characteristics of the external cavity feedback efficiency and the focal length of the transform lens for lasers with different waveguide thicknesses.We have found that using LOC laser diodes can increase the proportion of external cavity feedback,thereby improving the SBC efficiency.At a current of 90 A,the CW output power of the SBC system is 59.2 W,and the SBC efficiency reaches up to 102.8%.All emitters of the laser array have achieved spectral locking with a spectral width of 11.67 nm,and the beam parameter product is 4.38 mm·mrad.展开更多
We proposed an aperiodic laser beam distribution, in which the laser beams are placed along a Fermat spiral, to suppress the sidelobe power in the coherent beam combining. Owing to the changed distances between two co...We proposed an aperiodic laser beam distribution, in which the laser beams are placed along a Fermat spiral, to suppress the sidelobe power in the coherent beam combining. Owing to the changed distances between two consecutive beams, the conditions of the sidelobe suppression are naturally satisfied. The Fermat spiral array was demonstrated to achieve a better sidelobe suppression than the periodic arrays, and the effects of various factors on the sidelobe suppression were analyzed numerically. Experiments were carried out to verify the sidelobe suppression by different Fermat spiral arrays, and the results matched well with the simulations.展开更多
基金Project supported by Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No.2020029)。
文摘The ultrashort lasers working in pulse-burst mode reveal great machining performance in recent years. The number of pulses in bursts effects greatly on the removal rate and roughness. To generate a more equal amplitude of pulses in burst with linear polarization output and time gap adjustable, we propose a new method by the harmonic beam combining(HBC).The beam combining is commonly used in adding pulses into the output beam while maintaining the pulse waveform and beam quality. In the HBC, dichroic mirrors are used to combine laser pulses of fundamental wave(FW) into harmonic wave(HW), and nonlinear crystals are used to convert the FW into HW. Therefore, HBC can add arbitrarily more HW pulses to generate pulse-burst in linear polarization with simple structure. The amplitude of each pulse in bursts can be adjusted the same to increase the stability of the burst, the time gap of each pulse can be adjusted precisely by proper time delay. Because HBC adds pulses sequentially, the peak power density of the burst is the same as each pulse, pulses can be combined without concern of back-conversion which often occurs in high peak power density. In the demonstration, the extendibility of HBC was verified by combining two beams with a third beam. The combined efficiency rates were larger than 99%, and the beam quality of each beam was maintained at M^(2)≈1.4.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.62305388)the Postgraduate Scientific Research Innovation Project of Hunan Province(Grant No.QL20230007).
文摘Orbital-angular-momentum(OAM)multiplexing technology offers a significant dimension to enlarge communication capacity in free-space optical links.The coherent beam combining(CBC)system can simultaneously realize OAM multiplexing and achieve high-power laser output,providing substantial advantages for long-distance communication.Herein,we present an integrated CBC system for freespace optical links based on OAM multiplexing and demultiplexing technologies for the first time,to the best of our knowledge.A method to achieve flexible OAM multiplexing and efficient demultiplexing based on the CBC system is proposed and demonstrated both theoretically and experimentally.The experimental results exhibit a low bit error rate of 0.47%and a high recognition precision of 98.58%throughout the entire data transmission process.By employing such an ingenious strategy,this work holds promising prospects for enriching ultra-long-distance structured light communication in the future.
基金This work was financed in the framework of the strategic program DOB-1-6/1/PS/2014 funded by the National Center for Research and Development of Poland.
文摘The performance of a laser weapon system based on coherent beam combining(CBC)depends on its propagation properties in the atmosphere.In this study,an analytical model based on partial coherent beam combining(PCBC)for assumed coherence coefficients between beams in a CBC lattice was developed.The Kolmogorov model of atmospheric turbulence and the Hufnagel-Valley model of C^(2)_(n) dependence on atmospheric parameters were implemented.Novel simplified metrics were proposed to assess the CBC performance.Several beam profiles(super-Gaussian,truncated Gaussian,etc.)and geometries were analyzed in terms of maximal intensity in the far field.An approximate formula for PCBC efficiency dependent on the Fried radius was proposed.The results of CBC modeling were compared to those of the Gaussian beam propagation model in a turbulent atmosphere.The dependence of CBC performance on the C^(2)_(n) parameter,range,and elevation angle was analyzed.It could be concluded that the application of CBC for medium and long range propagation is impractical without an effective adaptive optics system.
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 11474257 and 61605183
文摘By employing three reflecting volume Bragg gratings, a near-infrared 4-channel spectral-beam-combining system is demonstrated to present 720 W combined power with a combining efficiency of 94.7%. The combined laser beam is near-diffraction-limited with a beam factor M^2-1.54. During this 4-channel beam-combining process, no special active cooling measures are used to evaluate the volume Bragg gratings as combining elements are under the higher power laser operation. Thermal expansion and period distortion are verified in a 2 k W 2-channel beam-combining process, and the heat issue in the transmission case is found to be more remarkable than that in the diffraction e-se. Transmitted and diffracted beams experience wave-front aberrations with different degrees, thus leading to distinct beam deterioration.
基金supported by the Innovation Foundation for Graduates in National University of Defense Technology,China(Grant No.B080702)
文摘Coherent beam combining of two fibre amplifier chains with a total power of 260 W in a compact system using the stochastic parallel gradient descent （SPGD） algorithm is demonstrated. A 150 MHz linewidth fibre laser is built and introduced for high-power amplification to mitigate stimulated Brillouin scattering （SBS）. Compact high-power amplifier chains are built with low power all-fibre system and high-power bulk free-optics fibre amplifiers. When the total power is about 260 W, active phase-locking of two high-power amplifiers is demonstrated using the SPGD algorithm. In closed-loop, the power in the main lobe increases 1.68 times, the visibility is increased from 0 to 0.62, and the phase residual error is less than λ/10.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12074272 and 61905271)the National Defense Science and Technology Innovation Special Zone Project of China (Grant No. 20-163-02-ZT-008-009-01)Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (Grant No. 2020A1515011083)。
文摘The generation of terahertz(THz) waves by focusing a femtosecond pulsed laser beam at a distance is able to overcome the strong absorption properties of air and has rapidly attracted the attention of industry. However, the poor directionality of the THz wave radiation generated by this method is not conducive to THz wave applications. By controlling the morphology of the ultrafast laser-excited plasma filament and its electron density distribution through coherent beam combining technology, we achieve direct THz beam shaping and are able to obtain THz wave radiation of Gaussian or arbitrary transverse distribution. The novel experimental approach proposed in this paper opens up the research field of direct THz wave shaping using plasma. Moreover, it innovates multi-parameter convergence algorithms and, by doing so, has the potential to find beam patterns with higher energy conversion efficiency and break the energy limit of THz waves emitted by lasers at high power.
文摘We present the numerical and experimental study on the coherent beam combining of fibre amplifiers by means of simulated annealing （SA） algorithm. The feasibility is validated by the Monte Carlo simulation of correcting static phase distortion using SA algorithm. The performance of SA algorithm under time-varying phase noise is numerically studied by dynamic simulation. It is revealed that the influence of phase noise on the performance of SA algorithm gets stronger with an increase in amplitude or frequency of phase noise; and the laser array that contains more lasers will be more affected from phase noise. The performance of SA algorithm for coherent beam combining is also compared with a widely used stochastic optimization algorithm, i.e., the stochastic parallel gradient descent （SPGD） algorithm. In a proof-of-concept experiment we demonstrate the coherent beam combining of two 1083~nm fibre amplifiers with a total output power of 12~W and 93% combining efficiency. The contrast of the far-field coherently combined beam profiles is calculated to be as high as 95%.
基金supported by the Innovation Foundation for Graduates in National University of Defense Technology,China (GrantNo.B080702)
文摘A novel scalable architecture for coherent beam combining with hybrid phase control involving passive phasing and active phasing in master oscillator-power amplifier configuration is presented. Wide-linewidth mutually injected passive phasing fibre laser arrays serve as master oscillators for the power amplifiers, and the active phasing using stochastic parallel gradient descent algorithm is induced. Wide-linewidth seed laser can suppress the stimulated Brillouin scattering effectively and improve the output power of the fibre laser amplifier, while hybrid phase control provides a robust way for in-phase mode coherent beam combining simultaneously. Experiment is performed by active phasing fibre laser amplifiers with passive phasing fibre ring laser array seed lasers. Power encircled in the main-lobe increases1.57 times and long-exposure fringe contrast is obtained to be 78% when the system evolves from passive phasing to hybrid phasing.
文摘We demonstrate coherent beam combining of two tiled-aperture single-frequency fibre amplifiers with a total output power of 29.65 W by using the multi-dithering technique. The two laser beams are packaged closely by using free-space mirrors side by side into a tiled-aperture with a near-field fill factor of 62%. Active phase control of the amplifier is performed on commercially available digital lock-in amplifiers. Experimental results show that the power contained in the main-lobe in closed-loop is 1.72 times greater than that in open-loop, which is 86% for the ideal case. The fringe contrast of the far-field fringe pattern is as high as 80% when the system is in closed-loop. The beam quality of the combined beam is computed to he BQ = 1.48. The whole system in closed-loop performs well in a long-time observation.
基金supported by the Key Research and Development Program of Shandong Province(Nos.2023ZLYS03 and 2022CXGC020104)。
文摘A spectrum-tunable 650 nm semiconductor laser dense spectral beam combining(DSBC)system has been successfully realized for the first time,to the best of our knowledge.This system is constructed based on a dual-grating DSBC(DG-DSBC)module,which can realize DSBC with any preset spectrum width under ideal conditions.In this paper,three sets of spectrum-tunable examples are finally given.The combined spectra are stabilized at 4.89,8.04,and 10.17 nm,with a maximum beam combining efficiency of about 88.27%.The brightness of this system is improved by more than 71%compared with that of the traditional DSBC structure.
基金supported by the Foundation of Lidar and Device Laboratory,Sichuan Province,Chinathe Basic Military Research Institutes Steadily Support Special Projects。
文摘This study presents active coherent beam combining(CBC)of a pulsed laser based on sampling the intrapulse evaluation function.By precisely controlling the trigger sequence of an analog-to-digital converter,the fixed time point of the pulse light is sampled as an evaluation function for CBC.The active CBC of two fiber amplifiers with a 500 ns pulse width and a 10 k Hz repetition rate is experimentally demonstrated by applying a hill-climbing algorithm.The residual phase error is approximately λ/27.A coherent Doppler wind lidar(CDWL)based on CBC light source is verified.The experimental results verify the feasibility of using the pulsed CBC to improve the pulse energy of a CDWL without degrading performance.
文摘Machine learning has already shown promising potential in tiled-aperture coherent beam combining(CBC)to achieve versatile advanced applications.By sampling the spatially separated laser array before the combiner and detuning the optical path delays,deep learning techniques are incorporated into filled-aperture CBC to achieve single-step phase control.The neural network is trained with far-field diffractive patterns at the defocus plane to establish one-to-one phase-intensity mapping,and the phase prediction accuracy is significantly enhanced thanks to the strategies of sin-cos loss function and two-layer output of the phase vector that are adopted to resolve the phase discontinuity issue.The results indicate that the trained network can predict phases with improved accuracy,and phase-locking of nine-channel filled-aperture CBC has been numerically demonstrated in a single step with a residual phase ofλ/70.To the best of our knowledge,this is the first time that machine learning has been made feasible in filled-aperture CBC laser systems.
基金supported by the Key Research and Development Program of Shandong Province(Nos.2023ZLYS03 and 2022CXGC020104)the Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province(No.2020B090922003)。
文摘A hybrid cavity structure based on individual laser diode integrating coherent beam combining(CBC)and spectral beam combining(SBC)is demonstrated.The CBC structure is used to enhance laser output power while optimizing beam quality,and the SBC structure is employed to further increase laser output power.An output power of 1.42 W was obtained at 0.55 A,with a high combining efficiency of 87.2%.Additionally,the brightness of this structure is 58.65 MW·cm^(-2)·sr^(-1),which is 3.66times that of a single laser diode.The entire structure provides a new approach for increasing the output power and optimizing the beam quality of the laser diode.
基金supported in part by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(No.2022YFB3606000)in part by State Key Laboratory of Pulsed Power Laser Technology(No.SKL2020ZR02).
文摘In this paper,we report a coherent beam combining(CBC)system that involves two thulium-doped all-polarization maintaining(PM)fiber chirped pulse amplifiers.Through phase-locking the two channels via a fiber stretcher by using the stochastic parallel gradient descent(SPGD)algorithm,a maximum average power of 265 W is obtained,with a CBC efficiency of 81%and a residual phase error of λ/17.After de-chirping by a pair of diffraction gratings,the duration of the combined laser pulse is compressed to 690 fs.Taking into account the compression efficiency of 90%and the main peak energy proportion of 91%,the corresponding peak power is calculated to be 4 MW.The laser noise characteristics before and after CBC are examined,and the results indicate that the CBC would degrade the low frequency relative intensity noise(RIN),of which the integration is 1.74%in[100 Hz,2 MHz]at the maximum combined output power.In addition,the effects of the nonlinear spectrum broadening during chirped pulse amplification on the CBC efficiency are also investigated,showing that a higher extent of pulse stretching is effective in alleviating the spectrum broadening and realizing a higher output power with decent combining efficiency.
基金This work was supported by the Key Technology Research and Development Program of Shandong(Nos.2022CXGC020104 and 2023ZLYS03)the Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province(No.2020B090922003).
文摘In this paper,a spectral beam combining(SBC)structure of multi-single emitters laser diode based on a polarization full feedback(PFF)external cavity is proposed and demonstrated.The maximum combining efficiency is 75.6%,which leads to an output power of 38.48 W,a degree of polarization(DOP)of 99.42%,and electro-optical conversion efficiency of 35.63%under continuous wave operation at a current of 8 A.Compared to the conventional SBC,the output power,the combining efficiency,the electro-optical conversion efficiency,and the DOP of the PFF-SBC structure present improvements of 5.73 W,11.26 percentage points,5.3 percentage points,and 7.26 percentage points,respectively.The results show that this SBC method can achieve a high efficiency and linearly polarized laser output of SBC,thereby making the subsequent polarization beam-combining efficiency approach the limit.
基金Project(52175445)supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProject(2022JJ30743)supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province,China+1 种基金Project(2023GK2024)supported by the Key Research and Development Program of Hunan Province,ChinaProject(2023ZZTS0391)supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China。
文摘Red-green-blue(RGB)beam combiners are widely used in scenarios such as augmented reality/virtual reality(AR/VR),laser projection,biochemical detection,and other fields.Optical waveguide combiners have attracted extensive attention due to their advantages of small size,high multiplexing efficiency,convenient mass production,and low cost.An RGB beam combiner based on directional couplers is designed,with a core-cladding relative refractive index difference of 0.75%.The RGB beam combiner is optimized from the perspective of parameter optimization.Using the beam propagation method(BPM),the relationship between the performance of the RGB beam combiner and individual parameters is studied,achieving preliminary optimization of the device’s performance.The key parameters of the RGB beam combiner are optimized using the entropy weight-technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution TOPSIS method,establishing the optimal parameter scheme and further improving the device’s performance indicators.The results show that after optimization,the multiplexing efficiencies for red,green,and blue lights,as well as the average multiplexing efficiency,reached 99.17%,99.76%,96.63%and 98.52%,respectively.The size of the RGB beam combiner is 4.768 mm×0.062 mm.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.61705264 and 61705265)the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province,China(No.2019JJ10005).
文摘We incorporate deep learning(DL)into tiled aperture coherent beam combining(CBC)systems for the first time,to the best of our knowledge.By using a well-trained convolutional neural network DL model,which has been constructed at a non-focal-plane to avoid the data collision problem,the relative phase of each beamlet could be accurately estimated,and then the phase error in the CBC system could be compensated directly by a servo phase control system.The feasibility and extensibility of the phase control method have been demonstrated by simulating the coherent combining of different hexagonal arrays.This DL-based phase control method offers a new way of eliminating dynamic phase noise in tiled aperture CBC systems,and it could provide a valuable reference on alleviating the long-standing problem that the phase control bandwidth decreases as the number of array elements increases.
基金supported by the Shanghai Science and Technology Committee(Nos.16DZ2290102 and15JC1403500)the Chinese Academy of Sciences(No.QYZDJ-SSW-JSC014)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.61405216)
文摘We propose a nonparallel double-grating structure in a spectral-beam combining technique, where two gratings are placed nonparallel satisfying the Littrow mount in the focal region of the convergent lens. The most attractive advantage of this approach is that it will compress the spectral span into half of its original spectrum, which means the number of combined elements can be doubled in the gain range of diode lasers. Experimental results demonstrate that the CW output power of the combined beam is 30.9 W with a spectral span of 7.0 nm, compared with its original spectrum span of 13.6 nm, and the spectral beam combining efficiency is 70.5%. In consideration that a single grating could have a high efficiency of 〉97% in a bandwidth of over ten nanometers, the efficiency loss of the grating pair should be less than 6%, which is acceptable for most applications, so this method of using double gratings should be highly interesting for practical applications when a nearly doubled number of diode lasers could be combined into one single laser compared with the previous single-grating methods.
基金supported in part by the National Key R&D Program of China(No.2021YFA1400604)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.91850206 and62075213)。
文摘We studied the spectral beam combining[SBC]of a large optical cavity[LOC]laser array to achieve high-power and highbrightness laser output.We discussed the characteristics of the external cavity feedback efficiency and the focal length of the transform lens for lasers with different waveguide thicknesses.We have found that using LOC laser diodes can increase the proportion of external cavity feedback,thereby improving the SBC efficiency.At a current of 90 A,the CW output power of the SBC system is 59.2 W,and the SBC efficiency reaches up to 102.8%.All emitters of the laser array have achieved spectral locking with a spectral width of 11.67 nm,and the beam parameter product is 4.38 mm·mrad.
基金This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.62005207 and 61701505)the Open Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Pulsed Power Laser Technology(No.SKL2019KF06)the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province(Nos.2019JQ-648 and 2018JQ-6080)。
文摘We proposed an aperiodic laser beam distribution, in which the laser beams are placed along a Fermat spiral, to suppress the sidelobe power in the coherent beam combining. Owing to the changed distances between two consecutive beams, the conditions of the sidelobe suppression are naturally satisfied. The Fermat spiral array was demonstrated to achieve a better sidelobe suppression than the periodic arrays, and the effects of various factors on the sidelobe suppression were analyzed numerically. Experiments were carried out to verify the sidelobe suppression by different Fermat spiral arrays, and the results matched well with the simulations.
