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US 2011/0032604 A1Published application
Passive all-fiber integrated high power coherent beam combination
AssigneeNorthrop Grumman Space & Mission Systems Corp.
InventorsJoshua Elliott Rothenberg, Eric Chiu Tat Cheung
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fiber laser amplifier system including a beam splitter that splits a feedback beam into a plurality of fiber beams where a separate fiber beam is sent to a fiber amplifier for amplifying the fiber beam. A tapered fiber bundle couples all of the output ends of all of the fiber amplifiers into a combined fiber providing a combined output beam. An end cap is optically coupled to an output end of the tapered fiber bundle to expand the output beam. A beam sampler samples a portion of the output beam from the end cap and provides a sample beam. A single mode fiber receives the sample beam from the beam sampler and provides the feedback beam.
Claims20
A fiber amplifier system comprising:
- a splitter splitting a feedback beam into a plurality of fiber beams;
- a plurality of fiber amplifiers each receiving and amplifying a fiber beam, said fiber amplifiers each including an output end;
- a tapered fiber bundle including an input end and an output end, said input end being coupled to the output end of all of the fiber amplifiers, said output end of the tapered fiber bundle being a combined fiber including a portion of all of the fiber amplifiers with fiber cores in a single fiber mass, said tapered fiber bundle outputting a combined output beam;
- an end cap optically coupled to the output end of the tapered fiber bundle, said end cap expanding the output beam from the tapered fiber bundle;
- a beam sampler for sampling a portion of the output beam from the end cap and providing a focused sample beam;
- and
- a single mode fiber receiving the focused sample beam from the beam sampler, said single mode fiber providing the feedback beam.
4 more elements
A fiber amplifier system comprising:
- a splitter splitting a feedback beam into a plurality of fiber beams;
- a plurality of polarization controllers each receiving one of the fiber beams, said polarization controllers providing polarization orientation control;
- a plurality of fiber amplifiers each receiving and amplifying a fiber beam, said fiber amplifiers each including an output end;
- a tapered fiber bundle including an input end and an output end, said input end being coupled to the output end of all of the fiber amplifiers, said output end of the tapered fiber bundle being a combined fiber including a portion of all of the fiber amplifiers with fiber cores in a single fiber mass, said tapered fiber bundle outputting a combined output beam;
- an end cap optically coupled to the output end of the tapered fiber bundle, said end cap expanding the output beam from the tapered fiber bundle;
- a collimating and magnifying telescope receiving the output beam from the end cap, said collimating and magnifying telescope expanding and collimating the output beam;
- a beam sampler for sampling a portion of the output beam from the collimating and magnifying telescope and providing a sample beam;
- a polarization detector detecting the polarization in the fiber beams in the sample beam and providing polarization measurement error signals;
- a synchronous polarization processor receiving the polarization measurement error signals and controlling the polarization controllers to control the orientation of the polarization of the fiber beams in the fiber amplifiers in response to the polarization measurement signals;
- and
- a single mode fiber receiving the sample beam from the beam sampler, said single mode fiber providing the feedback beam.
8 more elements
A fiber amplifier comprising:
- a splitter splitting a feedback beam into a plurality of fiber beams;
- a plurality of fiber amplifiers each receiving and amplifying a fiber beam, said fiber amplifiers each including an output end;
- a tapered fiber bundle including an input end and an output end, said input end being coupled to the output end of all of the fiber amplifiers, said output end of the tapered fiber bundle being a combined fiber including a portion of all of the fiber amplifiers with fiber cores in a single fiber mass, said tapered fiber bundle outputting a combined output beam;
- an end cap optically coupled to the output end of the tapered fiber bundle, said end cap expanding the output beam from the tapered fiber bundle;
- a combined lens and sampling grating assembly including a lens and a sampling grating, said sampling grating providing a sample beam from the output beam from the end cap, said lens collimating the output beam from the end cap;
- and
- a single mode fiber receiving the sample beam from the sampling grating, said single mode fiber providing the feedback beam.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.