Shaped fibers for efficient beam combination

An optical assembly, comprising:

• multiple laser modules configured to emit respective beams;
• a feeding fiber;
• and
• a fiber optic combiner coupled between the multiple laser modules and the feeding fiber, wherein the fiber optic combiner comprises multiple optical fibers bundled within an enclosing tube, and wherein the multiple optical fibers bundled within the enclosing tube each include a core and a non-circular cladding surrounding the core.

A method, comprising:

• receiving multiple preforms that each have a core and a circular cladding surrounding the core;
• forming multiple optical fibers having non-circular shapes by removing material from the circular cladding surrounding the core of each of the multiple preforms;
• and
• bundling the multiple optical fibers within an enclosing tube having a geometric shape.