ABSTRACT
A corner cube (CC) as a peculiar coherent combination element is first, to the best of our knowledge, theoretically and experimentally proved by the authors. When a CC is used as a total-reflecting mirror in the solid-state laser resonator it can improve the laser far-field energy focalization. Furthermore, the differences between the coherent characteristics of the lasers with a corner cube resonator (CCR) and those with a Fabry-Perot resonator have been investigated, respectively. Theoretical calculation and numerical simulation have proved that the symmetric output beams of the CCR laser are coherent and the adjacent output beams are partially coherent. Based on these special coherent characteristics, a new laser coherent combining configuration, in which a CC was utilized as a total-reflecting mirror, was proposed and experimentally investigated. In our experiments, the measured far-field intensity profiles of coherent combing laser arrays are in good agreement with the numerical simulation. These novel coherent characteristics of a CC may be important for applications in solid-state lasers and laser coherent combining systems, and coherent combination may be one of the development trends and future research directions for CCR lasers.
ABSTRACT
Coherent beam combination is an effective way to develop high-power lasers with high beam quality and high brightness. Coherent combination of six solid-state lasers based on the technique of mutual injection phase locking by using the natural coherent combination property of corner cube is first investigated. The coherent combination with 15.3 J of output energy, 1.7 mrad of divergent angle is obtained, and the combining efficiency is as high as 95.6% at 10 Hz and 85 A. The far-field profile is flattened protuberance.
