Abstract

Progress in phase-locked diode arrays has resulted in higher coherent output power than is obtainable with single-diode lasers. Recently, this general concept was applied to CO₂ waveguide lasers in which a two-element array was phase-locked at the 1-W output power level by optically coupling the two-laser element through a transparent partition.¹ Here we report phase-locked operation of two- and three-element CO₂ waveguide laser arrays at the 50-W output power level using a ridge waveguide optical coupling technique to achieve phase locking. Our results to date indicate that scaling the output power of sealed-off C0₂ waveguide laser arrays to the 100-W to 1-kW power level should be possible in the near future. This level is over an order of magnitude higher than typical output power levels generated by single-channel CO₂ waveguide lasers.

© 1986 Optical Society of America