Coherently phase combined, high contrast, pulsed optical fiber amplifier array

A pulsed laser array system comprising:

• a beam generating sub-system for generating a pulsed signal beam and one or more reference beams that are frequency locked together;
• a beam splitter for splitting the pulsed signal beam into a plurality of split pulsed signal beams for a plurality of fibers;
• an array of amplifier chains including at least one amplifier for amplifying each split pulsed signal beam;
• a phase adjuster in each amplifier chain, each phase adjuster receiving a phase adjusting signal;
• a piston phase controller for receiving the amplified split pulsed signal beams generating a piston phase control signal;
• an intra-pulse phase controller for receiving a frequency-shifted reference beam and generating an intra-pulse phase control signal;
• and
• a combining element for receiving the piston phase control signal and the intra-pulse phase control signal and providing the phase adjusting signal to the phase adjusters for adjusting the phase of the split pulsed signal beams to be in phase with the reference beams.

A method of coherently phase combining an array of optical fiber amplifier chains, comprising the steps of:

• generating a pulsed signal beam and one or more reference beams that are frequency locked together;
• splitting the pulsed signal beam into a plurality of split pulsed signal beams for a plurality of fibers;
• sending the split pulsed signal beams through an array of amplifier chains including at least one amplifier for amplifying each split pulsed signal beam;
• providing a phase adjuster in each amplifier chain, each phase adjuster receiving a phase adjusting signal;
• receiving the amplified split pulsed signal beams and generating a piston phase control signal;
• receiving a frequency-shifted reference beam and generating an intra-pulse phase control signal;
• and
• combining the piston phase control signal and the intra-pulse phase control signal and providing the phase adjusting signal to the phase adjusters for adjusting the phase of the split pulsed signal beams to be in phase with the reference beams.