All-fiber phase actuator based on an erbium-doped fiber amplifier for coherent beam combining at 1064 nm

Active phase control in fiber amplifiers is of considerable interest for low-noise single-frequency amplifiers and for coherent beam combining. We demonstrate phase control at 1064 nm by use of an erbium-doped fiber. We investigated the phase shift by guiding the beam through an erbium-doped fiber amplifier in a Mach-Zehnder configuration and applied the results to stabilize the relative phase of two ytterbium-doped fiber amplifiers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of an all-fiber coherent beam combining at 1064 nm employing an erbium-doped fiber as a phase actuator. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America