Incoherent combining of 100-W Yb-fiber laser beams by PTR Bragg grating

Volume diffractive gratings (Bragg gratings) in photo-thermo-refractive (PTR) inorganic glass are proposed for incoherent laser beam combining because they have narrow spectral selectivity and diffraction efficiency greater than 95% from visible to near IR regions. They showed no laser-induced damage, no thermal lens, and no Bragg angle shift under CW Yb-fiber laser (1096 nm) irradiation at 100 kW/cm(2). It opens the way to rugged, low-cost, efficient optics for high-power laser systems. Based on theoretical modeling of PTR Bragg gratings, we have designed a high-efficient technology for incoherent combining of two or several laser beams with certain wavelength shift. Two 100 W beams of Yb-fiber lasers in the range of 1080-1100 nm with the wavelength separation of 11 nm were combined with efficiency exceeding 75% while material losses did not exceed 2-4%. No fading or parameter change of PTR Bragg grating working in two 100 W beams were found. It was found that the process limiting efficiency of incoherent beam combining is the spectral widening of radiation of Yb-doped fiber lasers. At high power, their spectral width exceeds spectral selectivity of Bragg grating and causes a decrease of diffraction efficiency.