The phased fiber laser array is an important technique for achieving high power and high beam quality laser output. The adaptive fiber-optics collimator (AFOC) is a key element of the phased fiber laser array, which is used to transfer the laser from fiber to free space and precisely control the direction of the outgoing collimating beam. To achieve kilowatt-level and higher power laser output from AFOC, it is necessary to design the collimating lens group to meet the high-power demand and analyze the optical-mechanical-thermal coupling effect of this device. According to the dynamic range of AFOC, a large aperture collimating lens group adapted to large deflection angle is presented in this paper. By using the finite element analysis method, the laser is simplified as the body heat source, and the temperature field and stress field at each lens of the AFOC at 1kW-10kW are simulated, and distribution is Gaussian. The wavefront phase analysis of the outgoing beam shows that the aberrations caused by heat absorption of the optical mirror group are mainly spherical aberrations and defocusing terms. At a laser power level of 6kW, the beam quality factor β of the collimated beam can be reduced from 4.6 to 1.6 by compensating thermal defocusing. This study provides a theoretical basis for the design and optimization of high-power AFOC and offers theoretical support for evaluating their reliability.
Beam scanning technology is widely used in LIDAR, space optical communication, adaptive optics, and other fields. The microlens array scanner (MLAS) has the potential to realize large angle beam scanning with large beam size. In this paper, the current research status of MLAS and research progress are briefly introduced first. After that, the two-dimensional scanning mathematical model of the Kepler structured MLAS is analyzed and established using Fourier optics. Then, simulations are conducted to demonstrate the process of two-dimensional discrete addressing scanning. The analysis results show that the scanning angle that can be addressed by MLAS is determined by the parameters of the microlens array, and that the displacement error between the microlens arrays leads to scanning spot energy decrease. Finally, some thoughts about the future development of MLAS are given.
High-power and high-quality pulsed fiber lasers with low repetition frequency are widely applied to various fields ranging from basic science to industrial applications. Coherent beam combining (CBC) is a significant method to obtain that beam, but few methods used for large-scale CBC of pulsed fiber lasers with low repetition frequency were presented. To realize it, a new method based on a continuous carrier was designed, where the continuous wave worked as the beacon signal, and the stochastic parallel gradient descent algorithm was employed for phase locking and tilt correction. The beam combining experiment revealed that the combining efficiency of two lasers with a repetition frequency of 15 kHz and a pulse width of 100 ns was 95%, and the fringe contrast in the center of the far-field spot was improved about three times. This method promises to be furtherly applied to combine the pulsed lasers with lower repetition frequency and narrower pulse width. These results pave the way for large-scale CBC of high-power and high-quality pulsed fiber lasers.
Recently developed adaptive fiber laser array technique provides a promising way incorporating aberrations correction with laser beams transmission. Existing researches are focused on sub-aperture low order aberrations (pistons and tips/tilts) compensation and got excellent correction results for weak and moderate turbulence in short range. While such results are not adequate for future laser applications which face longer range and stronger turbulence. So sub-aperture high aberrations compensation is necessary. Relationship between corrigible orders of sub-aperture aberrations and far-field metrics as power-in-the-bucket (PIB) and Strehl ratio is investigated with numeric simulation in this paper. Numerical investigation results shows that increment in array number won’t result in effective improvement of the far-field metric if sub-aperture size is fixed. Low order aberrations compensation in sub-apertures gets its best performances only when turbulence strength is weak. Pistons compensation becomes invalid and higher order aberrations compensation is necessary when turbulence gets strong enough. Cost functions of the adaptive fiber laser array with high order aberrations correction in sub-apertures are defined and the optimum corrigible orders are discussed. Results shows that high order (less than first ten Zernike orders) compensation is acceptable where balance between increment of the far-field metric and the cost and complexity of the system could be reached.
An introduction was given to the active segmented mirror(ASM) used in coherent beam combination firstly. Based on the actuator distribution of ASM, the computational formula between the perturbation voltage of each actuator and the perturbation of piston or tip/tilt was acquired. Then the numerical analysis of correction process with two different perturbation ways in SPGD algorithm was carried on. By comparing the two correction processes, it was found that the convergence speed of the second method is 25 times as fast as the first one when there only existed piston error between the two beamlets, while the convergence speed was almost the same when there only existed tip/tilt error, and the convergence speed is 5 times when there existed both piston and tip/tilt error.
Coherent beam combining (CBC) of fiber array is a promising way to generate high power and high quality laser beams.
Target-in-the-loop (TIL) technique might be an effective way to ensure atmosphere propagation compensation without
wavefront sensors. In this paper, we present very recent research work about CBC of collimated fiber array using TIL
technique at the Key Lab on Adaptive Optics (KLAO), CAS. A novel Adaptive Fiber Optics Collimator (AFOC)
composed of phase-locking module and tip/tilt control module was developed. CBC experimental setup of three-element
fiber array was established. Feedback control is realized using stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) algorithm.
The CBC based on TIL with piston and tip/tilt correction simultaneously is demonstrated. And the beam pointing to
locate or sweep position of combined spot on target was achieved through TIL technique too. The goal of our work is
achieve multi-element CBC for long-distance transmission in atmosphere.
This paper reports a new method for piston and tilt control in the laser coherent combining system. Adaptive fiber optics
collimators have been developed to correct beam-tilt. The SPGD algorithm is employed to correct a given wavefront.
The relative parameters which directly influence the algorithm's convergence are studied. The adaptive fiber optics
collimator's working principle is confirmed.
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