An array (700) of surface-emitting gain chips includes a common substrate (110), plural gain chips (100, 300, 500) formed on the common substrate (110), each configured to generate a light beam (102), plural optical couplers (410), each located on a top surface of a corresponding gain chip (100, 300, 500) of the plural gain chips (100, 300, 500), plural optical fibers (420), each connected with one end to a corresponding optical coupler (410) of the plurality of optical couplers (410), an array wide optical coupler (710) connected to another end of the plural optical fibers (420), and a single optical fiber (720) connected to the array wide optical coupler (710) and configured to output the combined light beams (102).