Patent ID: 7733930
Filing Date: 2010-06-08
Classification: B23K,G02B,H01S

Abstract:
1. A laser system comprising: a master oscillator; a plurality of amplifiers, each optically coupled to the master oscillator and each producing, responsive to a signal therefrom, a respective monochromatic beamlet, each monochromatic beamlet contributing a respective beamlet error; a diffractive optical element optically coupled via a converging lens to each of the plurality of amplifiers to receive said respective monochromatic beamlet therefrom, wherein said beamlets are converged on the diffractive optical element via the converging lens, said diffractive optical element producing a combined output beam responsive to said monochromatic beamlets, said combined output beam exhibiting a combined error characteristic resulting from said beamlet errors; and an error control system adapted to measure from a sample of said combined output beam one of said beamlet errors contributed by a specific one of said monochromatic beamlets as distinct from said beamlet errors contributed by all other monochromatic beamlets and to adjust a characteristic of said one specific monochromatic beamlet so as to substantially minimize said one beamlet error; said error control system comprising: a code generator adapted to generate for each of a selected plurality of said monochromatic beamlets a unique repeating code word having a plurality of code elements; and for each of said selected plurality of monochromatic beamlets an amplitude modulator interposed in each of said monochromatic beamlets and responsive to said code generator such that each of said monochromatic beamlets is modulated with the corresponding unique code word.