Coherent combining of high brightness tapered amplifiers for efficient non-linear conversion

We report on a coherent beam combination of three high-brightness tapered amplifiers, which are seeded by a single-frequency laser at λ = 976 nm in a simple architecture with efficiently cooled emitters. The maximal combined power of 12.9 W is achieved at a combining efficiency of > 65%, which is limited by the amplifiers’ intrinsic beam quality.

The coherent combination cleans up the spatial profile, as the central lobe’s power content increases by up to 86%. This high-brightness infrared beam is converted into the visible by second harmonic generation. This results in a high non-linear conversion efficiency of 4.5%/W and a maximum power over 2 W at 488 nm, which is limited by thermal effects in the periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN).