Coupled High Power Waveguide Laser Research.
Abstract
The United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) conducted a research program to explore a unique ridged waveguide technique to phase-lock an array of coupled CO2 waveguide lasers. The motivation for this investigation was scale the output power capability of CO2 waveguide lasers by one to two orders of magnitude greatee than the present state-of-the-art (i.e., scale to power levels of 100 W to 1kW) while maintaining single frequency operation. A one year program was conducted to test the feasibility of the ridged waveguide coupling technique. The feasibility study clearly produced positive results. In particular, stable phase-locked operation of two and three-channel arrays was demonstrated at the 50 W level. Phase-locking was maintained in a laboratory environment for many hours without adjustments other than length tuning of the laser. In adition, a first-order theory was developed to strengthen the understanding of the coupled waveguide laser array. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 30, 1985
- Accession Number
- ADA159079
Entities
People
- A. J. Cantor
- A. J. Demaria
- J. T. Kennedy
- L. A. Newman
- R. A. Hart
Organizations
- United Technologies Corporation