Ma Yanxing

Optimal Truncation of Element Beam in a Coherent Fiber Laser Array

The beam quality of a coherent fiber laser array often suffers from the low fill factor of the Gaussian laser array. One simple and effective approach to improve the fill factor is to truncate the array element properly. An analytical expression for far-field intensity distribution of a truncated coherent fiber laser array is derived. Optimal truncation of the element beam in different coherent fiber laser arrays is obtained by using energy encircled in the far-field central-lobe as the beam quality criterion. By optimal truncation, energy encircled in the central-lobe can be 97% compared with the ideal case. The shift in optimal truncation parameter in the case of phase noise is also analyzed.

Numerical and experimental study on coherent beam combining of fibre amplifiers using simulated annealing algorithm

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%.

Coherent Beam Combining of Two Slab Laser Amplifiers and Second-Harmonic Phase Locking Based on a Multi-Dithering Technique

Coherent beam combining (CBC) is an efficient way to scale the brightness of laser arrays. We demonstrate the active phase locking CBC of two slab laser amplifiers based on the multi-dithering technique. The experimental investigation on the 102 W coherent beam combining of two slab amplifiers shows that the whole system in a closed loop performs well over a long time observation. The contrast of the coherent combined beam profile is about 87% and the combining efficiency is nearly 85%. In addition, the CBC of two green lasers is realized based on the second-harmonic generation of the phase locking pump lasers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report about second-harmonic active phase locking, which indicates further potential applications of CBC.

Coherent Beam Combining of Two Fiber Amplifiers Seeded by Multi-Wavelength Fiber Laser

Multi-wavelength seed laser can mitigate stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and improve the output power of the narrow-linewidth fiber amplifier. In this present study, coherent combining of two fiber amplifiers seeded by a multi-wavelength laser is proposed and demonstrated using stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) algorithm. The long-exposure visibility of the far field interference pattern is increased from 0.15 to 0.97 when the system evolves from open-loop to closed-loop. The feasibility of coherent combining of fiber amplifiers seeded by multi-wavelength seed laser is validated.

Coherent Beam Combining of Three Watt-Level Fiber Amplifiers Using a DSP-Based Stochastic Parallel Gradient Descent Algorithm

We present an experimental study on coherent beam combining of three watt-level fiber amplifiers using a stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) algorithm. Phase controlling is performed by running the SPGD algorithm on a digital-signal-processor (DSP) chip with a voltage updating rate of 16500 times per second. Energy encircled in the target pinhole is 2.62 times more than that in an open loop. The combining efficiency is as high as 87%.

Coherent Beam Combination of Three Fiber Amplifiers with Multi-dithering Technique

Coherent beam combination of three W-level fiber amplifiers with multi-dithering technique is demonstrated. The multi-dithering technique is used for phase control in two channels. In the experiment, two channels are modulated by sine wave with 70 kHz and 100 kHz respectively, and two regular commercial DSP lock-in amplifiers and an industrial computer are used for electric signal processing in the feedback loop. The fringe contrast is advanced from 12% to 81%, and 78% coherent combination efficiency is obtained when the feedback loop is closed.

Beam Quality and Power Scalability of Various Multicore Fiber Lasers

Beam quality and power scalability analyses for various multicore fiber lasers (MFL) are presented. In-phase complex amplitude and corresponding far-field intensity distribution of each type of MFL is calculated using the finite-difference time-domain method. It is revealed that the hexagonal ring-type MFL has the best performance in power handling and maintaining beam quality. Further calculation indicates that power encircled in the diffraction-bucket of L-core MFL scales with no more than 0.4L, which challenges the practical worthiness of fielding MFL with a large number of cores.

Propagation of Coherent Gaussian Schell-Model Beam Array in a Misaligned Optical System

Based on a generalized Collins formula, the analytical formula for the propagation property of coherent Gaussian Schell-model (GSM) beam array through a misaligned optical system is derived. As numerical examples, the propagation of a coherent GSM beam array in a typical misaligned optical system with a thin lens is evaluated. The influence of different misalignment parameters is calculated and the normalized-intensity distribution is graphically illustrated.

Tolerance on Tilt Error for the Incoherent Combination of Fiber Lasers in a Real Environment

We present a detailed study on the tolerance on tilt error for the incoherent combination of fiber lasers propagating in a real environment and analyze the influence of fill factor, mechanical jitter and atmospheric turbulence on tilt tolerance. Numerical results show that the tolerance on tilt error is independent of the fill factor and decreases with an increase in mechanical jitter or turbulence intensity

80 W all-fiber single-frequency MOPA

A two-stage all-fiber single-frequency MOPA is demonstrated. It provides 80W output power with a slope efficiency of 70% at 1064 nm. The phase noise of the fiber amplifiers measured by using multi-dithering technique is less than 50Hz.