2 kW incoherent beam combining of four narrow-linewidth photonic crystal fiber amplifiers

Abstract

We report on beam combining of four narrow-linewidth fiber amplifier chains, running at different wavelengths and each delivering 500 W optical output power. The main amplifier stage consists of a large mode area photonic crystal fiber. The four output beams of the amplifier chains are spectrally (incoherent) combined using a polarization-independent dielectric reflective diffraction grating to form an output beam of 2 kW continuous-wave optical power with good beam quality (M(2)x = 2.0, M(2)y = 1.8).