Optical coherent combining of high-power optical amplifiers for free-space optical communications
Vincent Billault, Simon Lévêque, Anaëlle Maho, Matthew Welch, Jérôme Bourderionnet, É. Lallier, Michel Sotom, Arnaud Le Kernec, A. Brignon
Abstract
Highly efficient coherent beam combining (CBC) of two very-high-power optical amplifiers (VHPOA) with applications to long-range FSO communications such as ground-to-space feeder links is presented. The CBC setup is designed to minimize the telecom signal degradation, with a polarization beam splitter used to minimize the power fluctuations and to control the output polarization state of the beam. The system delivers 80 W output power and is proven to be compatible with 25 Gb/s telecom signals with a less than 1 dB power penalty.
Topics & Concepts
Beam splitterAmplifierOpticsFree-space optical communicationOptical communicationPolarization (electrochemistry)PhysicsOptical powerOptical amplifierPower (physics)TelecommunicationsComputer scienceBandwidth (computing)LaserPhysical chemistryQuantum mechanicsChemistryOptical Network TechnologiesSemiconductor Lasers and Optical DevicesOptical Wireless Communication Technologies