Experiments with Active Phase Matching of Parallel-Amplified, Multiline HF Laser Beams by a Phase-Locked Mach-Zehnder Interferometer.

Abstract

Active phase matching of multiline HF laser beams by means of phase-locked Mach-Zehnder interferometer was demonstrated by locking the interferometer to the central interference fringe at zero optical pathlength difference. The central fringe could be found by varying the spectral content of the input beam. Laser amplification in one leg of the interferometer decreased fringe visibility without adversely affecting locking. Single-line fringe patterns produced by an array spectrometer (while the interferometer was operated in its scanning mode) were analyzed to show that no significant resonant dispersion occurred in the amplifier. The techniques developed have potential for measuring dispersion mismatch between larger parallel amplifiers. These experiments demonstrated in principle that a number of multiline HF amplified beams can be recombined and phase-matched to produce a high beam-quality output beam. (Author)

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 31, 1982
Accession Number
ADA135589

Entities

People

  • E. B. Turner
  • J. G. Coffer
  • J. M. Bernard
  • R. A. Chodzko
  • R. W. F. Gross

Organizations

  • The Aerospace Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Amplifiers
  • Control Systems
  • Detectors
  • Frequency
  • Hydrogen Fluoride Lasers
  • Laser Amplifiers
  • Laser Beams
  • Lasers
  • Mach Zehnder Interferometers
  • Measurement
  • Phase Shift
  • Radiation
  • Sine Waves
  • Spectra
  • Spectral Lines
  • White Light

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Optical Physics and Photonics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy