| This thesis reports a study of phase locking in solid-state laser arrays of a variety of configurations, including a 2x2 Nd:YVO4 continuous-wave laser array, a two-element passively Q-switched Nd,Cr:YAG laser array, a two-element continuous-wave ytterbium fiber laser array, and a two-element ytterbium fiber lasers passively Q-switched by stimulated Brillouin scattering. Phase locking is accomplished by coupling the lasing elements into a common Fourier-transform resonator, with the lasing elements placed at one focal plane of a converging lens and the output mirror placed at the other focal plane. The control of the relative phase among the elements is done by placing a spatial filter in front of the output mirror to introduce different modal losses. We have succeeded in achieving highly stable phase-locked operation in the in-phase mode in continuous-wave laser arrays. The fringe visibility of the phase-locked beam is nearly 1. As the coupling strength decreases, the transition from phase locked to unlocked mode is abrupt. Phase locking of nano-second pulsed laser arrays requires a tight control of the resonance frequencies and path lengths of the individual lasing elements to ensure the pulses generated by the individual elements to occur simultaneously. As the difference in path lengths increase or the coupling strengths decrease, the transition from the phase locked to the unlocked states is characterized by a gradual loss of coincidence of the pulses from the individual elements and a reduction in the fringe contrast in the combined laser beam. The current approach of phase locking has high efficiency and is applicable to two-dimensional laser arrays containing a large number of elements. |
