System and method for combining multiple fiber amplifiers or multiple fiber lasers
View Patent ↗A system for combining multiple fiber amplifiers, or multiple fiber amplifiers. The system includes a fiber combiner with multiple cores for connecting with the multiple fiber amplifiers and for combining the beams of the fiber amplifiers into a single beam. The fiber amplifiers are aligned, tapered, and stretched. A method for combining fiber amplifiers includes emitting a beam from a tapered fiber combiner and transmitting and coupling a portion of the emitted beam back into the fiber combiner via a feedback fiber. The transmission and coupling of the feedback fiber includes mixing the feedback fiber with the output of an auxiliary laser and boosting the feedback fiber by a pre-amplifier. The feedback fiber is split into a plurality of beams by a fiber splitter. The beams are fed into an array of fiber amplifiers and combined with output of the individual fiber amplifiers to form the tapered fiber combiner.
1. A system for combining multiple fiber amplifiers comprising:
a plurality of fiber amplifiers;
a tapered fiber combiner formed from ends of the plurality of fiber amplifiers bundled in a close pack geometry, stretched and fused together, the tapered fiber combiner combining the beams of the fiber amplifiers into a single beam.
2. The system of claim 1 for the passive phasing of amplifiers comprising:
an optical device;
a beam expander;
a beam splitter at a far-field on an optical axis of an emitted beam from a tapered fiber combiner;
a feedback fiber for feeding into the tapered fiber combiner;
an auxiliary laser for mixing with the feedback fiber;
a pre-amplifier for boosting the feedback fiber; and
a fiber splitter for splitting the feedback fiber into N-beams;
wherein the plurality of fiber amplifiers receive the beams from the feedback fiber.
3. The system of claim 2 , further comprising:
a tube for enclosing and aligning the fiber combiner.
4. The system of claim 1 using active phasing comprising:
an electro-optical phase modulator for correcting the phase of beams from individual amplifiers.
5. The system of claim 4 , further comprising:
a tube for enclosing and aligning the fiber combiner.
6. A system for combining multiple fiber amplifiers comprising:
a plurality of fiber amplifiers;
a tapered fiber combiner formed from ends of the plurality of fiber amplifiers bundled in a close pack geometry, stretched and fused together, the tapered fiber combiner combining the beams of the fiber amplifiers into a single beam,
wherein the system uses all-fiber passive phasing and comprises:
a feedback signal provided by the central, inner-most fiber in the array from the tapered fiber combiner;
an auxiliary laser for mixing with the feedback fiber;
a pre-amplifier for boosting the feedback fiber;
a fiber splitter for splitting the feedback fiber into a plurality of beams; and
an array of fiber amplifiers for receiving the beams from the feedback fiber.
7. The system of claim 6 , further comprising:
a tube for enclosing and aligning the fiber combiner.
8. The system of claim 1 wherein the tube is comprised of glass.
9. The system of claim 2 wherein the fiber splitter is a 1×N fiber splitter.
10. A method for combining fiber amplifiers comprising:
emitting a beam from a tapered fiber combiner;
placing an optical device, beam expander, and beam splitter, at a far-field on an optical axis of an emitted beam from the tapered fiber combiner;
transmitting and coupling a portion of the emitted beam back into the fiber combiner via a feedback fiber;
mixing the feedback fiber with output of an auxiliary laser;
boosting the feedback fiber by a pre-amplifier;
splitting the feedback fiber into a plurality of beams by a fiber splitter;
feeding the beams into an array of fiber amplifiers; and
combining the output of the individual fiber amplifiers in the tapered fiber combiner.