Coherent beam combining of high power broad-area laser diode array with a closed-V-shape external Talbot cavity.

We have coherently combined a high-power broad-area laser diode array by using a feedback loop closed off-axis external Talbot cavity. The off-axis feedback from two gratings provides transverse-mode control of broad-area lasers. The Talbot configuration of the external cavity implements diffractive coupling among laser diodes. Feedback from two gratings increases external cavity quality factor and spectrum selection capability. As a result, spatial coherence was improved and spectral linewidth was narrowed down. The high visibility of the far-field profile indicates that high spatial coherence was achieved. We also observed symmetric far-field profiles indicating that laser array was phase locked to in-phase and out-of-phase super-modes, respectively. Transition between these super-modes was observed by tuning one grating's tilted angle.

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