Passive coherent combination of a diode laser array with 35 elements.

A monolithic diode laser array with 35 elements is operated as a coherent array through the use of a Self-Fourier cavity. By analyzing the far field interference pattern, the coherence was measured to be 0.57 with all 35 elements operating and was measured to be approximately constant for arrays with greater than 15 elements. These results are in rough agreement with previous analyses which predict a coherence equal to 0.65 for very large arrays of passively coupled laser elements and demonstrate how the use of regenerative feedback benefits the passive phasing of coherent laser arrays. These results demonstrate that it is possible to circumvent previous cold cavity theories that predict poor phasing properties for arrays with greater than ~10 elements.