Influence of perturbative phase noise on active coherent polarization beam combining system

Abstract

In this manuscript, the influence of perturbative phase noise on active coherent polarization beam combining (CPBC) system is studied theoretically and experimentally. By employing a photo-detector to obtain phase error signal for feedback loop, actively coherent polarization beam combining of two 20 W-level single mode polarization-maintained (PM) fiber amplifiers are demonstrated with more than 94% combining efficiency. Then the influence of perturbative phase noise on active CPBC system is illustrated by incorporating a simulated phase noise signal in one of the two amplifiers. Experimental results show that the combining efficiency of the CPBC system is susceptible to the frequency or amplitude of the perturbative phase noise. In order to ensure the combining efficiency of the unit of CPBC system higher than 90%, the competence of our active phase control module for high power operation is discussed, which suggests that it could be worked at 100s W power level. The relationship between residual phase noise of the active controller and the normalized voltage signal of the photo-detector is developed and validated experimentally. Experimental results correspond exactly with the theoretically analyzed combining efficiency. Our method offers a useful approach to estimate the influence of phase noise on CPBC system.