Efficient Generation of Intense Laser Light from Multiple Laser Light Sources Using Misaligned Collimating Optical Elements

摘要

A system is provided for combining laser light sources. The system includes: a stack of laser diode bar arrays, comprising two or more laser diode bar arrays, each laser diode bar array having multiple laser diodes; a multimode optical fiber; and a plurality of optical elements disposed between the stack of laser diode bar arrays and the multimode optical fiber, configured to direct light from the stack of laser diode bar arrays to the multimode optical fibers, the plurality of optical elements further including: a plurality of fast-axis collimating (FAC) lenses, wherein at least one FAC lens of the plurality of FAC lenses corresponds to each laser diode bar array. At least one FAC lens of the plurality of FAC lenses is misaligned with respect to the corresponding laser diode bar array. At least one misaligned FAC lens has at least one of a translational position and a orientation relative to its corresponding laser diode bar array different from another FAC lens of the plurality of FAC lenses relative to its corresponding laser diode bar array.