High Brightness Spectral Beam Combination of High-Power Vertical-External-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers

摘要

High brightness spectral beam combination of two high-power vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL) using volume Bragg grating in a photo-thermo-refractive (PTR) glass is demonstrated. High efficiency beam combination in excess of 90% is achieved, providing an efficient method for power scaling of diffraction limited beam. The beam quality of each starting lasers was 1.68 and 1.35, and that of combined beam was 1.9. Scaling opportunities based on the parameters of VECSELs and PTR Bragg gratings are discussed.