Spectral combining of fiber amplified pulsed diode lasers

Fiber lasers have been established as power-scalable laser architecture. Continuous-wave output powers well above the kW-barrier have been demonstrated with diffraction-limited beam quality. However, even the most advanced fiber laser is limited by nonlinear effects, fiber facet damage or thermal issues at a certain power level. Spectral combining of continuous-wave fiber lasers is a well known as a very promising power scaling technique to obtain power levels far beyond the limitations of a single fiber emission without significant beam quality degradation. In this paper, the authors report for the first time to their knowledge on spectral combination of pulsed fiber laser systems. Generation of intense pulses out of fiber lasers is somewhat more challenging because of the confined high peak intensities. The presented approach gives a possibility to enhance the pulse energy and pulse peak power of compact pulsed sources.