Ultimate efficiency of spectral beam combining by volume Bragg gratings

    Authors

    D. R. Drachenberg; O. Andrusyak; G. Venus; V. Smirnov; J. Lumeau;L. B. Glebov

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Appl. Optics

    Keywords

    FIBER AMPLIFIERS; ORDER-MODE; POWER; PROPAGATION; DIFFRACTION; LIGHT; ARRAY; GLASS; Optics

    Abstract

    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. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America

    Journal Title

    Applied Optics

    Volume

    52

    Issue/Number

    30

    Publication Date

    1-1-2013

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    7233

    Last Page

    7242

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000325926600004

    ISSN

    1559-128X

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