摘要:
A multimode optical fiber has a core that includes radially dependent dopant materials to provide a desired refractive index profile and a desired Raman gain coefficient profile. A laser diode pump laser array provides high brightness light that is launched into the fiber and is subject to maximum Raman gain along the optical axis, thereby favoring the lowest order mode of the fiber, discriminating against higher order modes and providing a high brightness, diffraction limited output. The fiber can be incorporated into oscillators, amplifiers and other optical devices.
摘要:
A method is provided for forming an optical fiber amplifier. The method comprises providing a composite preform having a gain material core that includes one or more acoustic velocity varying dopants to provide a longitudinally varying acoustic velocity profile along the gain material core to suppress Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) effects by raising the SBS threshold and drawing the composite preform to form the optical fiber amplifier.
摘要:
A high-power laser system includes a laser master oscillator, a plurality of fiber laser amplifiers producing intermediate output beamlets, a combiner for combining the intermediate beamlets into a combined output beam, and a piston error controller for minimizing errors related to beam combination that may degrade the quality of the combined output beam. A piston error controller processes a sample of the combined output beam using a Diffractive Optical Element to isolate a signal representing the total piston error of the combined beam. The controller uses amplitude modulation based on Hadamard code words to tag each non-reference intermediate beamlet with a unique code sequence orthogonal to those used for the other beamlets. For each intermediate beamlet, the associated piston error contribution is recovered using a Hadamard decoder. A very small phase dither is also introduced to allow the sign or direction of the piston error to be recovered. The decoded piston error contribution is processed by a cascaded product detector unit to derive a piston error control signal, which is provided to a phase modulator to thereby adjust the phase of a beamlet and minimize the piston error contributed thereby.
摘要:
A hybrid beam combining system or method combines a plurality of coherent and incoherent light beams into a composite high power diffraction limited beam. N oscillators each transmit light at one of N different wavelengths and each wavelength is split into M constituent beams. M beams in each of N groups are phase locked by a phase modulator using phase correction signals. The phase locked beams are amplified and coupled into an M×N fiber array. Beams emerging from the array are collimated and incident on a diffractive optical element operating as a beam combiner combining the M outputs at each N wavelength into a single beam. The N single beams are incident and spectrally combined on a grating which outputs a composite beam at a nominal 100% fill factor. A low power sample beam, taken from the N beams emerging from the diffractive optical element, is measured for phase deviations from which the phase correction signals are derived and fed back to the phase modulators. The diffractive optical element may include a weak periodic grating for diffracting the low power sample. The diffractive optical element may also be combined with the spectral combining grating into a single optical element.
摘要:
A system or method coherently combines a large number of light beams at a single wavelength in multiple stages to form a high-power diffraction limited output beam. A two-stage system, or method based thereon, includes a master oscillator transmitting a light beam to a first phase modulation stage, which splits the beam into N beams and locks beam phases using phase correction signals from a first feedback loop. A second phase modulation stage splits each N beam into M beams and locks the phases of M beams in each N group using phase correction signals from a second feedback loop. A two-dimensional fiber array directs M×N beams to a first diffractive optical element combining the beams into N coherent beams of M beams each, and phase correction signals for the second stage are derived from a sample extracted from the N coherent beams. A second diffractive optical element combines the N coherent beams into the output beam, and phase correction signals for the first stage are derived from a sample extracted from the output. The diffractive optical elements may operate as both beam combiners and beam samplers.
摘要:
A hybrid beam combining system or method combines a plurality of coherent and incoherent light beams into a composite high power diffraction limited beam. N oscillators each transmit light at one of N different wavelengths and each wavelength is split into M constituent beams. M beams in each of N groups are phase locked by a phase modulator using phase correction signals. The phase locked beams are amplified and coupled into an M×N fiber array. Beams emerging from the array are collimated and incident on a diffractive optical element operating as a beam combiner combining the M outputs at each N wavelength into a single beam. The N single beams are incident and spectrally combined on a grating which outputs a composite beam at a nominal 100% fill factor. A low power sample beam, taken from the N beams emerging from the diffractive optical element, is measured for phase deviations from which the phase correction signals are derived and fed back to the phase modulators. The diffractive optical element may include a weak periodic grating for diffracting the low power sample. The diffractive optical element may also be combined with the spectral combining grating into a single optical element.
摘要:
A system or method coherently combines a large number of light beams at a single wavelength in multiple stages to form a high-power diffraction limited output beam. A two-stage system, or method based thereon, includes a master oscillator transmitting a light beam to a first phase modulation stage, which splits the beam into N beams and locks beam phases using phase correction signals from a first feedback loop. A second phase modulation stage splits each N beam into M beams and locks the phases of M beams in each N group using phase correction signals from a second feedback loop. A two-dimensional fiber array directs M×N beams to a first diffractive optical element combining the beams into N coherent beams of M beams each, and phase correction signals for the second stage are derived from a sample extracted from the N coherent beams. A second diffractive optical element combines the N coherent beams into the output beam, and phase correction signals for the first stage are derived from a sample extracted from the output. The diffractive optical elements may operate as both beam combiners and beam samplers.
摘要:
A hybrid laser source including a solid state laser driven by an array of fiber laser amplifiers, the inputs of which are controllable in phase and polarization, to compensate for distortions that arise in the solid state laser, or to achieve desired output beam properties relating to direction or focus. The output beam is sampled and compared with a reference beam to obtain phase and polarization difference signals across the output beam cross section, at spatial positions corresponding with the positions of the fiber laser amplifiers providing input to the solid state laser. Therefore, phase and polarization properties of the output beam may be independently controlled by predistortion of these properties in the fiber laser amplifier inputs.
摘要:
A micro-doppler ladar system for identifying and analyzing a target of interest includes a transmitter and coherent receiver pair, each of which includes a fiber optic power amplifier, and a controller. Preferably, the transmitter includes a master oscillator for generating a primary laser beam, a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) for generating a VCO signal having a predetermined, repetitive frequency pattern, a frequency shifting circuit for varying the frequency of the primary laser beam responsive to the VCO signal to thereby produce a frequency-varying primary laser signal, and the optical fiber amplifier, which amplifies the frequency-varying primary laser signal to thereby produce a transmit laser beam. In addition, the coherent receiver, which responds to backscattered light produced by the interaction of the transmit laser beam with the target of interest, includes an optical fiber pre-amplifier for amplifying the backscattered light to thereby produce an amplified return laser beam, and a phase locked loop receiving the primary laser beam and the amplified return laser beam for generating an electrical signal indicative of range, velocity and a characteristic signature of the target of interest. The transmitter and coherent receiver can be operated in a target acquisition mode of operation for determining range and velocity, and a signature acquisition mode of operation for determining a characteristic signature of the target of interest responsive to the electrical signal. A method for operating the micro-doppler ladar system is also described.
摘要:
A phased array Raman laser amplifier includes a beam generator for generating a fundamental laser beam and a Raman seed frequency laser beam, and a fiber optic laser amplifier array for forming a diffraction limited output laser beam at the Raman seed frequency by amplifying the fundamental laser beam to a power level corresponding to the Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) threshold to thereby pump the SRS process and provide Raman gain to the Raman seed frequency laser beam. The fiber optic laser amplifier includes a beam splitter receiving the fundamental laser beam and the Raman seed frequency laser beam and generating N secondary fundamental and N Raman seed frequency laser beams, N parallel rare earth doped optical fiber sections, each of the optical fiber sections amplifying a respective one of the N secondary fundamental laser beams to thereby produce N tertiary laser beams at the power level corresponding to the Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) threshold to thereby pump the SRS process and provide Raman gain to the N Raman seed frequency laser beams to thereby produce N amplified Raman seed frequency laser beams, and an optical combiner for receiving at least the N Raman seed frequency laser beams and for generating the diffraction limited output laser beam at the Raman seed frequency. Preferably, N is an integer greater than or equal to 2. A method for operating the phased array Raman laser amplifier is also described.