Passive Beam Combining in Compact Slab Lasers

A new compact and robust slab laser configuration which involves passive combining of several laser channels is presented. Light from each laser channel is transferred into the adjacent laser channels by means of a polarizing beam-displacer so as to obtain a combined output with high brightness. In this configuration it is possible to tune the coupling between the laser beams in order to control and optimize the combined output energy. The configuration is experimentally demonstrated by combining five laser channels with high efficiency, and the calculated results are in good agree to experimental results.