Patent ID: 8340150

Claim:
A method for producing mutually-coherent operation of a plurality of light emitters, each of the emitters outputting a respective power and brightness, the method comprising: mixing respective beams received from each of the plurality of emitters; combining the mixed beams in a beam-combining element to form a composite beam containing a respective contribution from each of the emitters; and feeding back through the beam-combining element at least a portion of the light containing the respective contribution from each of the emitters, the portion having a selected wavelength, wherein the portion is fed back into the emitters in such a way that each of the emitters receives narrowband light from every other emitter, and wherein mutually coherent operation of the plurality of emitters is achieved such that each of the emitters lases at the selected wavelength with a phase difference that results in a coherent output beam that effectively combines the powers from each of the emitters such that the output beam has a brightness that is greater than the brightnesses of the individual emitters.