Coherent combining technology of master oscillator power amplifier fiber arrays

Coherent beam combination of fiber laser array is an important technology of realize high-power, high-radiance fiber laser system. In this paper, Master Oscillator-Power Amplifier scheme is used to realize phase controlling of three ytterbium fiber amplifiers, the experiment results of both two and three fiber amplifiers are given and compared. Far-field patterns with different fill factor are studied experimentally. We perform optical phase-noise measurements of a commercial 1-W ytterbium fiber amplifier using our phase control electronics, the dominant phase noises of the 1-W fiber amplifier are at frequencies below one kilohertz. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.