Simultaneously Achieving Laser Coherent Beam Combining and Beam Shaping Using Pq:Dmna/Pmma(1/3)

Diode lasers are the most inexpensive lasers so far. They have numerous excellent properties such as highoutput power and large gain bandwidth. However, their spatial and spectral optical output properties arenotoriously bad. Therefore, diode lasers cannot take over traditional lasers. To improve the optical propertiesof a diode laser requires substantial amount of effort and expensive configuration yet with limited effects.The limitation of semiconductor material makes the output power of a single diode laser cannot be increaseeasily. This project proposes using a new holographic material, PQ:DMNA/PMMA to be a new type ofoptical element which can achieve laser output spectrum narrowing, beam shaping and coherent beamcombining at the same time with extremely simple and inexpensive configurations. This three year projectwill focus on developing stable material and the corresponding recipe along with the optical propertycharacterization of the material in the first year. The work in the second year will be on optimizing therecording configuration and optimizing the corresponding parameters as well as the laser phase lockconditions and configurations. The final year will be achieving the output spectrum narrowing and beamshaping simultaneously of a single diode laser and coherent beam combining for multiple diode lasers.