The combination of laser beams holds much promise for obtaining powerful beams. Methods are surveyed for beam combination (coherent and incoherent) and two of them are identified as the most effective means for achieving high power transmission in space. The two methods as applied to laser diode arrays are analyzed, and potentially productive work areas for the advancement of technology are delineated. Kwon, J. H. and Williams, M. D. and Lee, J. H. Langley Research Center RTOP 506-41-41-01...

Lists citations with abstracts for aerospace related reports obtained from world wide sources and announces documents that have recently been entered into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Database.

Laser beam combining techniques allow increasing the power of lasers far beyond what it is possible to obtain from a single conventional laser.One step further, coherent beam combining (CBC) also helps to maintain the very unique properties of the laser emission with respect to its spectral and spatial properties. Such lasers are of major interest for many applications, including industrial, environmental, defense, and scientific applications. Recently, significant progress has beenmade in coherent beam combining lasers, with a total output power of 100 kW already achieved. Scaling analysis indicates that further increase of output power with excellent beam quality is feasible by using existing state-of-the-art lasers. Thus, the knowledge of coherent beam combining techniques will become crucial for the design of next-generation highpower lasers. The purpose of this book is to present the more recent concepts of coherent beam combining by world leader teams in the field.