Beam Shaping of Single-Mode and Multimode Fiber Amplifier Arrays for Propagation Through Atmospheric Turbulence

We report experimental results and theoretical analysis of coherent beam combining with active phase control fiber beam shaping. An original optical configuration for target-in-the-loop single-mode fiber amplifier coherent combining through turbulence is presented, with a lambda/15 residual phase error. The experimental results and theoretical analysis demonstrate that detection subsystem aperture reduction is paramount to lower sensitivity to backward turbulence when using a detector in the laser emitter plane. In this configuration, coherent combining is achieved on a remote scattering surface with sole compensation of the onward turbulence. We also present a numerical model capable of assessing the combining efficiency in the case of high-power multimode large-mode-area (LMA) fiber amplifiers. Preliminary theoretical investigations point out that multiple-transverse-mode combining can result in severe wavefront distortion. In the case of multimode LMA fibers, control of the transverse modes phase relationship has to be achieved to preserve combining efficiency.