Acousto-Optic Power Summation for Mutually Noncoherent Pulsed Lasers

A method of the power summation for mutually noncoherent pulsed lasers of the same type using time interleaving is proposed and validated experimentally. The method uses an acoustic-optic deflector, which commutates radiation of different sources into one output channel simultaneously with radiation presenting in this channel. It is crucially important that the power of the final output radiation is equal to the power sum of the input sources, and the angular and coordinate parameters of an output beam are the same as that for the input sources. The experiments were carried out with single-mode diode lasers on a wavelength of 1.3 μm using a ТеО₂-crystal-based deflector. The method is appropriate for the power summation for fiber-optic, diode, and solid-state lasers. We have estimated the main interrelated parameters.