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:
Mar. 04, 2008
Filed:
Oct. 05, 2006
Joshua E. Rothenberg, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Robert R. Rice, Simi Valley, CA (US);
Sami A. Shakir, Alburquerque, NM (US);
Michael G. Wickham, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA (US);
Joshua E. Rothenberg, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Robert R. Rice, Simi Valley, CA (US);
Sami A. Shakir, Alburquerque, NM (US);
Michael G. Wickham, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA (US);
Northrop Grumman Corporation, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
A system and method for combining plural low power light beams into a coherent high power light beam. Optical amplifiers transmit a plurality of light beams propagating at a common wavelength through an array of optical fiber emitters. Each constituent beam is emitted from the array at a different propagation angle, collimated, and incident on a diffractive optical element operating as a beam combiner such that incident beams when properly phased and located are combined into a coherent beam at a desired diffraction order. A beam splitter or a periodic sampling grating on the diffractive optical element directs a low power sample beam to a spatial filter passing resonant mode output back to the optical amplifiers in a ring laser configuration thereby passively synchronizing phases of the constituent beams to maximize combination efficiency of the coherent beam.