Patent ID: 9013786
Filing Date: 2015-04-21
Classification: G02B,H01S

Abstract:
1. A high peak power fiber amplifier system, comprising: an array of fiber amplifiers implemented in the form of a multi-core fiber, said fiber amplifiers being spaced such that thermal fluctuations of said fiber amplifiers are matched sufficiently to limit relative phase fluctuations at fiber amplifier outputs to a bandwidth less than 10 kHz, and such that optical energy coupling between any of the fiber amplifiers of said array of fiber amplifiers is negligible; a laser source for seeding said array of fiber amplifiers; a beam distributor disposed between said laser source and said array of fiber amplifiers to distribute a pulse from said laser source into a plurality of beam paths incident on corresponding amplifiers of the array, wherein beams in said path have a spatial distribution substantially similar to the spatial distribution of an output of said laser source; at least one pump source configured for optically pumping said array of fiber amplifiers; a plurality of phase-control elements arranged in a spatial relation and optically connected to fiber amplifiers of said array of fiber amplifiers, said elements modifying an optical phase of at least one fiber amplifier output in response to phase-control signals; a phase control unit for producing said control signals to control the optical phase at the output of a majority of said fiber amplifiers of said array of fiber amplifiers, wherein said control signal and said phase control elements stabilize the optical output phase between the majority of said fiber amplifiers of said array of fiber amplifiers; and an optical combiner which receives phase stabilized pulses from said fiber amplifiers and optically combines said phase stabilized pulses to form a near diffraction limited output beam and a high peak power optical pulse at an output thereof.