Patent ID: 6876679

Claim:
A system for incoherently beam combining output beams from a plurality of laser diodes, comprising: a plurality of laser diode cells, each laser diode cell comprising a laser diode and an optical filter; said plurality of laser diode cells being disposed in association with a common optical path; each laser diode of said plurality of laser diode cells operable to produce an output bean; each filter of said plurality of laser diode cells being operable to allow the respective output beam generated by the laser diode of its laser diode cell to enter the common optical path; each filter of said plurality of laser diode cells being operable to allow the respective output beams generated by the laser diodes of prior laser diode cells on the common optical path to continue propagating along said common optical path; and a partial reflector disposed along said common optical path and operable to provide feedback to each laser diode of said plurality of laser diode cells, wherein said partial reflector and said filters of said plurality of laser diode cells define respective distinct resonant modes of the laser diodes of said plurality of laser diode cells.