Selective Repositioning and Rotation Wavelength Beam Combining System and Method

Abstract

A system and method for reconfiguring a plurality of electromagnetic beams to take advantage of various wavelength beam combining techniques. The reconfiguring of beams includes individual rotation and selective repositioning of one or more beams with respect to beam's original input position.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 13 / 042,042 filed Mar. 7, 2011.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present embodiments relate generally to laser systems and more particularly to wavelength beam combining systems and methods.[0004]2. Description of the Prior Art[0005]Wavelength beam combining (WBC) is a method for scaling the output power and brightness from laser diode bars, stacks of diode bars, as well as other lasers arranged in one or two-dimensional array.[0006]WBC methods have been developed to combine beams along the slow dimension of each emitter as well as the fast dimension of each emitter. As such, the system is more sensitive to imperfections in the optical gain elements. Furthermore, when broad-area optical gain elements are used the spectral utilization is poor. In some cases beam combining is performed along the stacking dimension. In such implementations the WBC stabilizin...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes methods for improving the output power and brightness of a WBC system by manipulating the beam profiles of multiple emitters. This allows multiple laser beams to be combined in a common system, resulting in a higher power output and better brightness. Overall, this patent provides techniques for creating a stable, high-brightness multi-wavelength output laser system.

Problems solved by technology

Furthermore, when broad-area optical gain elements are used the spectral utilization is poor.

Furthermore, since beam combining is performed along the stacking dimension or near diffraction-limited dimension spectral utilization is high.

However, one of the main drawbacks of this implementation is the output beam quality is limited to the beam quality of a single beam combining element or a single diode bar.

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