Ultimate efficiency of spectral beam combining by volume Bragg gratings

Spectral beam combining (SBC) by volume Bragg gratings (VBGs) recorded in photo-thermo-refractive (PTR) glass is a powerful tool for laser applications that require higher radiance than a single laser unit can achieve. The beam-combining factor (BCF) is introduced as a tool to compare various beam-c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied optics (2004) 2013-10, Vol.52 (30), p.7233-3
Main Authors: Drachenberg, Derrek R, Andrusyak, Oleksiy, Venus, George, Smirnov, Vadim, Lumeau, Julien, Glebov, Leonid B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beams (radiation)
Bragg gratings
Engineering Sciences
Laser beams
Lasers
Mathematical models
Optics
Photonic
Radiance
Spectra
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Summary:Spectral beam combining (SBC) by volume Bragg gratings (VBGs) recorded in photo-thermo-refractive (PTR) glass is a powerful tool for laser applications that require higher radiance than a single laser unit can achieve. The beam-combining factor (BCF) is introduced as a tool to compare various beam-combining methods and experiments. It describes the change of radiance provided by a beam-combining system but is not affected by the initial beam quality of the combined lasers. A method of optimization of VBGs providing the maximum efficiency of SBC has been described for an arbitrary number of beams. An experiment confirming the proposed modeling for a two-beam SBC system by a single VBG has demonstrated a total combined power of 301 W with a channel separation of 0.25 nm, combining efficiency of 97%, close to diffraction limited divergence with M(2)=1.18, BCF of 0.77, and spectral radiance of 770 TW/(sr·m(2)·nm), the highest to date for SBC.
ISSN:1559-128X
2155-3165
DOI:10.1364/AO.52.007233