Abstract

We describe a new coherent beam combining architecture based on passive phase locking of emitters in an extended cavity on the rear facet and their coherent combination on the front facet. This rear-side technique provides strong optical feedback for phase locking while maintaining a high electrical-to-optical efficiency. Two high-brightness high-power tapered laser diodes are coherently combined using a Michelson-based cavity. The combining efficiency is above 82% and results in an output power of 6.7 W in a nearly diffraction-limited beam with an $M_{4\sigma }^2\le 1.2$. A semi-active automatic adjustment of the current enhances the long-term stability of the combination, while the short-term stability is passively ensured by the extended cavity. This new laser configuration exhibits the simplicity of passive self-organizing architectures while providing a power conversion efficiency of 27% that is comparable to master oscillator power amplifier architectures.

© 2016 Optical Society of America

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