Phase control of an azimuthally polarized beam synthesized by an array of fiber lasers

Abstract

The control over beams with distributed polarization opens new ways for a wide range of applications from optical communications to laser processing of materials. This paper proposes a simple and efficient method of controlling the spatial characteristics of azimuthally polarized beams synthesized as a result of coherent combining of Gaussian beams emitted by a spatially ordered array of fiber lasers. The proposed method is based on maintaining the specified phase relations between the array subbeams by placing a phase forming element - a liquid crystal spatial light modulator - in the active feedback loop. A distinctive feature of the proposed method is the possibility of full control over beams with distributed polarization with phase control of only one component of the electric field. This leads to the significantly simpler design of the experiment. The mathematical model of beam formation and the algorithm of phase control of beams with spatially distributed polarization are discussed. The generation of beams with spatially distributed polarization, including cylindrical vector beams (CVB) and optical vortex beams (OVB), is demonstrated experimentally. The results of the experiment with an array of six fiber lasers are in a good agreement with the results of numerical simulation.