Projecte realitzat en col.laboració amb L'IFCO

We present a coherent-beam-combining (CBC) experiment using a 795 nm diode laser as a technique to achieve more power by combining two beams. Two Gaussian beams are made to interfere while controlling polarization, amplitude and their relative phase, in a modified Mach-Zehnder interferometer coupled with a polarization interferometer. The output power is locked using a split detector, thus stabilizing its performance and the final output. Next, we explore the polarization- beam-combining (PBC) in this new setup, yielding an efficiency of 80.9% for CBC – polarized light– and 91.7% for PBC – non-polarized light–. We ran a tapered amplifier (TA), controlling its current, temperature and heat dissipation, whose mechanical housing is currently in the optimization phase. In the sequel we shall be installing a TA on each arm of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer to obtain a brighter source. One interesting application of this work is its use in atomic-physics experiments (using rubidium) and second order interactions in crystals.