Pump combiner loss as a function of input numerical aperture power distribution

High-power combiner designs (such as kilowatt-class combiners and beyond) are increasingly aggressive on brightness conservation in order to reduce the brightness loss of the pumps as much as possible in both direct diode combining and pump and signal coupling, especially with the advent of next-generation high-power pumps. Since most of the pump loss is due to brightness loss across the combiner, tighter designs (close to the brightness limit) are considerably more sensitive to variations in the input power distribution as a function of numerical aperture; for instance, next-generation, high-power multi-emitter pumps are likely to have larger numerical apertures than conventional single-emitter diodes. As a consequence, pump insertion loss for a given combiner design sitting close to the brightness limit should be dependant on the input power distribution. Aside from presenting a manufacturing challenge, high brightness combiners also imply more sophisticated testing to allow a deeper understanding of the loss with respect to the far-field distribution of the pump inputs and thus enable the extrapolation of loss for an arbitrary, cylindrically symmetric radiant intensity distribution. In this paper, we present a novel test method to measure loss as a function of numerical aperture (NA) fill factor using a variable NA source with square-shaped far field distributions. Results are presented for a range of combiners, such as 7x1 and 19x1 pump combiners, with different brightness ratio and fiber inputs. Combiners violating the brightness conservation equation are also characterized in order to estimate the loss as a function of input power vs. NA distribution and fill factor.