Patent ID: 8374206

Claim:
A method of synthesizing a high power, high repetition rate polarized laser beam, comprising: generating a first polarized laser beam of multiple first polarized laser pulses having a first average power at a first repetition rate, the first polarized laser pulses characterized by a first polarization state; generating a second polarized laser beam of multiple second polarized laser pulses having a second average power and a second repetition rate, the second polarized laser pulses characterized by a second polarization state; generating of the first and second polarized laser beams producing the first polarized laser pulses in temporal nonoverlapping relationship with the second polarized laser pulses; introducing optical retardation so that the first and second polarization states of the respective first and second polarized laser pulses are orthogonally related; combining in an optical beam combiner the first and second polarized laser beams in the orthogonally related polarization states, the optical beam combiner characterized by low loss of the first and second average powers when combining the respective first and second polarized laser beams in the orthogonally related first and second polarization states and producing a combined beam of the first and second polarized laser pulses propagating along a combined beam path; and providing along the combined beam path an optical modulator that is operable to selectively change the orthogonal relationship of the polarization states of the first and second polarized laser pulses of the combined beam to produce a composite polarized beam of the first and second laser pulses, the optical modulator responsive to different values of a control signal to selectively impart to the combined beam different amounts of optical retardation so that the first and second polarization states of the respective first and second polarized laser pulses of the composite polarized beam are uniformly related; whereby the composite polarized beam has an average composite power that is greater than the first and second average powers at a composite repetition rate that is greater than the first and second repetition rates.