PLANAR WAVEGUIDE (PWG) AMPLIFIER-BASED LASER SYSTEM WITH ADAPTIVE OPTIC WAVEFRONT CORRECTION IN LOW-POWER BEAM PATH

摘要

A system includes a master oscillator (102) configured to generate a low-power optical beam (808). The system also includes a planar waveguide (PWG) amplifier (104) configured to amplify the low-power beam into a high-power output optical beam (116, 806), where the PWG amplifier has a larger dimension in an unguided direction and a smaller dimension in a transverse guided direction. The system further includes an adaptive optic (108, 202, 302, 502) configured to pre-distort the low-power optical beam substantially along a single dimension prior to injection of the low-power optical beam into the PWG amplifier in order to compensate for thermal-based distortions created by the PWG amplifier. The single dimension represents the unguided direction. In addition, the system includes a feedback loop configured to control the adaptive optic.