High brightness, monolithic, multispectral semiconductor laser

1. A laser system comprising:

a laser beam emitter configured to emit a plurality of input optical beams each having a different wavelength; and

a non-free-space beam combining module comprising:

a plurality of external facets disposed along an outside portion of the non-free-space beam combining module, wherein at least one facet is configured to receive the plurality of input optical beams; and

a plurality of optical modifying surfaces (i) at least partially contained within the non-free-space beam combining module and (ii) comprising at least one beam converging surface, a diffraction surface, and a partially reflective surface,

wherein the at least one beam converging surface is configured to receive the input optical beams and cause the beams to converge at or proximate the diffraction surface,

wherein the diffraction surface receives the converged beams and transmits a multi-wavelength beam onto the partially reflective surface, and

wherein the partially reflective surface (i) receives the multi-wavelength beam, (ii) reflects a portion of the converged beams back to the laser beam emitter via the diffraction surface, wherein the reflected portion of the combined beams stabilizes each of the input optical beams to its wavelength, and (iii) transmits the multi-wavelength beam.

2. The laser system of claim 1 , further comprising a dichroic combiner abutted to the partially reflective surface, whereby a continuous non-free space module is formed.

3. The laser system of claim 2 , wherein the dichroic combiner comprises at least two input facets configured to receive multi-wavelength beams, wherein one of the input facets is coated to internally reflect a first multi-wavelength beam having a first wavelength band and transmit a second multi-wavelength beam having a second wavelength band, whereby the first and second multi-wavelength beams are combined into a co-bore sighted multi-band beam.

4. The laser system of claim 1 , wherein the laser beam emitter comprises a diode bar.

5. The laser system of claim 1 , wherein the non-free-space beam combining module comprises a material selected from the group consisting of solid glass, fused silica, UV-grade sapphire, CaF 2 , MgF 2 , and ZnSe.

6. The laser system of claim 1 , wherein the laser beam emitter comprises at least one of a semiconductor laser, a diode laser, a fiber laser, or a quantum cascade laser.

7. The laser system of claim 2 , wherein the dichroic combiner comprises one or more dichroic reflecting surfaces that each reflects a first band of wavelengths and transmits a second band of wavelengths.

8. A laser system comprising:

a multi-beam non-free space combining module comprising a plurality of optical surfaces, the plurality of optical surfaces comprising an optical lens, a diffraction surface, and a partially reflecting output coupling surface; and

a plurality of laser beam emitters mounted on a surface of the combining module, each laser beam emitter being configured to emit a plurality of input optical beams each having a different wavelength,

wherein the optical lens is positioned to cause the input optical beams from the laser beam emitters to converge towards the diffraction surface,

wherein the diffraction surface combines the input optical beams into a multi-wavelength beam that is transmitted onto the partially reflecting output coupling surface, and

wherein a portion of the combined beams is reflected back to the plurality of laser beam emitters via the diffraction surface, the reflected portion of the combined beams stabilizing each of the input optical beams to its wavelength.

9. The laser system of claim 8 , wherein the optical lens is mounted on a surface of the combining module.

10. The laser system of claim 8 , further comprising a plurality of coupling prisms each (i) disposed between a laser beam emitter and the combining module and (ii) positioned to receive the input optical beams from the laser beam emitter and transmit said beams into the combining module.

11. The laser system of claim 8 , wherein the combining module comprises a material selected from the group consisting of solid glass, fused silica, UV-grade sapphire, CaF 2 , MgF 2 , and ZnSe.

12. The laser system of claim 8 , wherein the combining module is mounted on a cooling substrate.

13. The laser system of claim 8 , wherein each laser beam emitter comprises a diode bar.

14. The laser system of claim 8 , wherein each laser beam emitter comprises at least one of a semiconductor laser, a diode laser, a fiber laser, or a quantum cascade laser.

15. The laser system of claim 8 , wherein the laser beam emitters are mounted within the combining module.

16. The laser system of claim 8 , wherein the diffraction surface comprises at least one of a diffraction grating or a volume Bragg grating.