Brightness multi-emitter laser diode module and method

1. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of laser diode emitters, each emitter for emitting a broad-area light beam in a beam direction, each beam having a fast axis transverse to the beam direction and a slow axis transverse to both the beam direction and the fast axis, each beam being broad in the slow axis and narrow in the fast axis;

a group of optical components for each emitter for collimating, shaping, stacking and directing the beams along a light path towards a beam spot, each group aligned downstream on the beam direction of the group's associated emitter; and

a lens feature aligned on the light path downstream of the groups of optical components and upstream of the beam spot, the lens feature having a fast axis focal length less than about 3 millimeters,

wherein the lens feature is arranged to perform a fast-axis Fourier transform of the beams such that the edges of a fast axis near-field intensity distribution of the beams at the beam spot increase in steepness.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the lens feature is selected from the group comprising:

i) a fast-axis cylinder lens,

ii) an aspheric cylinder lens,

iii) a toroidal lens,

iv) a spherical lens,

v) an aspherical lens, and

vi) a transverse-gradient-index lens.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the fast axis focal length of the lens feature is between about 0.1 millimeters and about 2.0 millimeters.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the lens feature forms a solid coreless endcap coupled to a fiber at the beam spot.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the lens feature forms part of a tip of a fiber coupled to the apparatus at the beam spot.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising an objective lens aligned on the light path downstream of the groups of optical components.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the group of optical components for each emitter comprises a fast axis collimator, a slow axis collimator and a bending mirror.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising an optical fiber, a fiber tip thereof disposed at the beam spot for receiving the beams.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the optical fiber comprises a core having a rectangular cross-section transverse to the light path.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising a reflector aligned on the light path downstream of the fiber tip for reflecting a portion of the beams back to the emitters.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the reflector comprises a wavelength-dependent reflector.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the wavelength-dependent reflector is selected from the group comprising: a fiber Bragg grating, a thin-film filter, a Fabry-Perot etalon, a diffraction grating, and a volume holographic grating.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 , further comprising a wavelength-dependent optical element aligned on the light path between the fiber tip and the reflector, the wavelength-dependent optical element for separating one or more wavelengths of light from the beams.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the wavelength-dependent optical element is selected from the group comprising a thin-film filter, a Fabry-Perot etalon, a diffraction grating, a volume holographic grating, and a prism.

15. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of laser diode emitters, each emitter for emitting a broad-area light beam in a beam direction, each beam having a fast axis transverse to the beam direction and a slow axis transverse to both the beam direction and the fast axis, each beam being broad in the slow axis and narrow in the fast axis;

a group of optical components for each emitter for collimating, shaping, stacking and directing the beams along a light path towards a beam spot, each group aligned downstream on the beam direction of the group's associated emitter;

a lens feature aligned on the light path downstream of the groups of optical components and upstream of the beam spot, the lens feature having a fast axis focal length less than about 3 millimeters; and

means for creating astigmatism between the fast axis and the slow axis in the beams upstream of the lens feature in accordance with the fast axis focal length of the lens feature.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the means for creating astigmatism is selected from the group comprising one of:

i) a weak cylinder lens upstream of the lens feature,

ii) a weak cylinder lens formed on a downstream surface of an objective lens aligned on the light path downstream of the groups of optical components and upstream of the lens feature,

iii) a toroidal surface of an objective lens aligned on the light path downstream of the groups of optical components and upstream of the lens feature,

iv) a slight tilting of an objective lens in the plane of the fast axis, the objective lens aligned on the light path downstream of the groups of optical components and upstream of the lens feature;

v) a tilted plate parallel to the plane of the fast axis, and

vi) anamorphic optics in the group of optical components for each emitter being defocused such that the collimation of each light beam is different between the fast axis and the slow axis.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the lens feature reduces astigmatism introduced by the astigmatism means by refocusing the fast axis focal point on the beam spot.

18. A method for increasing the brightness of a multi-emitter laser diode module, the method comprising:

emitting a broad-area light beam from each of a plurality of laser emitters, each beam travelling in a beam direction, each beam having a fast axis transverse to the beam direction and a slow axis transverse to both the beam direction and the fast axis, each beam being broad in the slow axis and narrow in the fast axis;

collimating and shaping the beams;

stacking the beams in the fast axis;

directing the beams along a light path towards a downstream beam spot;

after collimating, stacking and directing the beams, Fourier transforming the beams in the fast-axis through a lens feature having a fast-axis focal length less than about 3 millimeters.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein Fourier transforming the beams further comprises increasing the steepness of the edges of a fast axis near-field intensity distribution of the beams at the beam spot.

20. The method of claim 18 , further comprising providing the fast axis focal length of the lens feature between about 0.1 millimeters and about 2.0 millimeters.

21. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

introducing astigmatism to the beams prior to Fourier transforming such that a fast axis focal point of the beams is located relative to the lens feature; and

reducing astigmatism during or after the fast-axis Fourier transforming by re-focusing the fast axis focal point on the beam spot.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein introducing astigmatism further comprises focusing the slow axis focal point on the beam spot.

23. The method of claim 18 further comprising coupling an optical fiber at the beam spot and wherein focusing on a beam spot comprises focusing into a fiber tip of the optical fiber.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising providing the optical fiber with a core having a rectangular cross-section transverse to the beam direction.

25. The method of claim 23 further comprising reflecting a portion of the beams from downstream of the fiber tip back to the emitters.

26. The method of claim 23 further comprising reflecting a portion of a selected wavelength of the beams from downstream of the fiber tip back to the emitters.