Design considerations and performance analysis of fiber laser array system for structuring orbital angular momentum beams

TL;DR

This paper investigates the design and performance of fiber laser array systems for generating high-power, fast switchable orbital angular momentum beams, focusing on system components, coherence, and optimization for practical applications.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of fiber laser array design considerations and performance metrics for structuring OAM beams, including evaluation of system components and dynamic control.

Findings

Performance metrics for fiber laser array systems are established.

System tolerance to perturbations is quantified.

Guidelines for optimizing OAM beam generation are provided.

Abstract

Since the advent of optical orbital angular momentum (OAM), advances in the generation and manipulation of OAM beams have continuously impacted on intriguing applications including optical communication, optical tweezers, and remote sensing. To realize the generation of high-power and fast switchable OAM beams, coherent combining of fiber lasers offers a promising way. Here in this contribution, we comprehensively investigate the coherent fiber laser array system for structuring OAM beams in terms of the design considerations and performance analysis. The performance metric and evaluation method of the laser array system are presented and introduced. Accordingly, the effect of the main sections of the laser array system, namely the high-power laser sources, emitting array configuration, and dynamic control system, on the performance of the output coherently combined OAM beams is evaluated, which reveals the system tolerance of perturbative factors and provides the guidance on system design and optimization. This work could provide beneficial reference on the practical implementation of spatially structuring high-power, fast switchable OAM beams with fiber laser arrays.