APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FIBER-LASER OUTPUT-BEAM SHAPING FOR SPECTRAL BEAM COMBINATION

摘要

A method and apparatus for combining a plurality of laser beamlets to form a single annular beam using spectral beam combination. This invention includes a plurality of laser sources that emit a plurality of beamlets, wherein each one of the plurality of beamlets has a different wavelength; a beam annularizer that includes a plurality of optical units arranged to receive the beamlets, and configured to convert each beamlet into a respective annular beam that has an annular cross-sectional power profile; a beam-intersection transform element configured to point each respective one of the plurality of annular beams in an angular intersection arrangement toward a first location; and a spectral beam combiner at the first location configured to combine the plurality of wavelengths in the plurality of annular beams into a first annular spectrally combined beam.