Scalable, high-power fiber laser produces coherent output

摘要

High-power fiber-laser arrays can potentially produce tens or hundreds of kilowatts of output power, providing significant military capabilities. At the May Solid-State and Diode Laser Technology Review workshop, hosted by the Directed Energy Professional Society (DEPS) in Albuquerque, NM, researchers from Northrop Grumman Space Technology demonstrated significant progress toward a seven-element fiber-laser array based on ytterbium (Yb)-doped polarization-maintaining single-mode power amplifiers. The 155-W output from the single fiber laser was a record for this type of coherent-beam-combining design and should prove highly scalable.