Power scaling of passively phased fiber amplifier arrays

Abstract

Passive phasing of fiber amplifier arrays are promising for the power scaling of high power fiber laser systems. The broadband operation of passively phased systems mitigates nonlinear effects such as Stimulated Brillouin Scattering. This leads to the possibility of scaling the individual fiber amplifiers in the passively phased arrays to multi-kilowatt power levels. In effect, a smaller number of fiber amplifiers can be used compared to other methods of fiber amplifiers combining. We report the passive phasing of 16 Yb-doped fiber amplifiers at 5W each for a total of 80W.