Coherent Beam Combining of Fiber Amplifiers via LOCSET (Postprint)

Fiber laser systems with a broad range of industrial, medical, and military applications have evolved rapidly over the past decade. Generally, fiber lasers offer several advantages over conventional solid state and chemical lasers including compactness, near diffraction limited beam quality, superior thermal-optical properties, and high optical to optical conversion efficiencies. Despite their advantages and brisk development, fiber lasers are still behind both chemical and bulk solid state lasers in terms of total output power. Currently, the intensity, and hence power available from single-mode optical fibers are limited by optical surface damage, thermal loads, and nonlinear optical effects.