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> Fibre lasers, where hundreds of tiny beams are joined through optical fibres into a larger beam I'm no laser expert, but this doesn't seem right to me.
by lupusreal 2y ago
> Fibre lasers, where hundreds of tiny beams are joined through optical fibres into a larger beam
I'm no laser expert, but this doesn't seem right to me.
- red75prime 2y agoIt is possible to create the desired wavefront using many emitters. A phased array is doing exactly that. But, yeah, tolerances for a phased array of IR lasers are much tighter. I'm not sure if it's technologically possible right now.
- anentropic 2y agome neither, but... https://www.exail.com/photonics/spectral-beam-combining https://www.exail.com/photonics/spectral-beam-combining https://www.rp-photonics.com/beam_combining.html https://www.rp-photonics.com/beam_combining.html https://agiltron.com/category/fiber-optical-splitter-coupler/fiber-optical-laser-combiner/ https://agiltron.com/category/fiber-optical-splitter-coupler...
- lupusreal 2y agoIt can be done, but I don't think that's the core principle of operation of fiber lasers (which I understand to be using the fiber itself as the lasing medium, which is a powerful technique because it can be coiled up and made very long.) Maybe I misread that sentence and that isn't what's being claimed.
- pfdietz 2y agoIEEE Spectrum had their usual interesting in-depth look at this a few years ago, for military fiber lasers. https://spectrum.ieee.org/fiber-lasers-mean-ray-guns-are-coming https://spectrum.ieee.org/fiber-lasers-mean-ray-guns-are-com... The technique appears to involve multiple lasers of slightly different wavelength; this allows the beams to be combined and to not interfere with each other.