The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 31, 2006
Filed:
Dec. 20, 2004
Sami A. Shakir, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Sami T. Hendow, Los Altos, CA (US);
William Robert Culver, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Burke E. Nelson, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Sami A. Shakir, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Sami T. Hendow, Los Altos, CA (US);
William Robert Culver, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Burke E. Nelson, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Northrop Grumman Corporation, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
A method passively locks and phases an array of fiber amplifiers in a fiber amplifier system that emits a beam, such as a laser beam. The method locks the fiber amplifiers so that the fiber amplifiers operate at same or similar frequencies. The method samples a small portion of the emitted beam in a far-field around a central lobe on an optical axis and then couples this portion of emitted beam back into the array of fiber amplifiers. The fiber amplifiers may be phased so that the emitted beam concentrates its energy around the central lobe in the far-field. Phasing may be achieved by using an aperture, for example, to restrict the portion of the emitted beam to be coupled back to a restricted region around the optical axis.