Active coherent beam combining and beam steering using a spatial mode multiplexer

Abstract

Coherent beam combination is one promising way to overcome the power limit of one single laser. In this paper, we use a Multi-Plane Light Converter to combine coherently 12 fibers at 1.03 µm with a phase locking setup. The overall loss measurement gives a combination efficiency in the fundamental Hermite-Gaussian mode as high as 70%. We demonstrate for the first time the beam steering capability of the system.