| 摘要 |
The invention relates to a passive device for the coherent combination of at least two optical amplifiers. According to the invention, said device comprises an interferometer having at least four branches (B1, B2, B3, B4) and comprising optical means for separating and combining polarization, said means having four inlet-outlet ports that are respectively connected to a branch. The first branch comprises a first polarization means, a first optical amplifier and a first mirror; the second branch comprises a second polarization means, a second optical amplifier and a second mirror; the third branch comprises a third polarization means and a third mirror; the fourth branch (B4) is an inlet-outlet branch of the interferometer; and the first, second and third polarization means are designed such that a polarized optical beam entering respectively into the first, second or third branch and reflected by the mirror at the end of said branch forms a polarized optical beam that leaves said branch with a polarization that is orthogonal to the polarization of the polarized optical beam entering said branch. |
| 主权项 |
1. A passive device for the coherent combination of a plurality of optical amplifiers, characterized in that the device comprises an amplitude-division interferometer having at least four branches (B1, B2, B3, B4), said interferometer comprising:
optical polarization splitting and combining means (C1) having four input-output ports (ES1, ES2, ES3, ES4), each input-output port (ES1, ES2, ES3, ES4) being respectively connected to one of the four branches (B1, B2, B3, B4), the first branch (B1) comprising a first polarization means (R1), a first bidirectional optical amplifier (A1) and a first mirror (M1) forming the end of said first branch (B1), the second branch (B2) comprising a second polarization means (R2), a second bidirectional optical amplifier (A2) and a second mirror (M2) forming the end of the second branch (B2), the third branch (B3) comprising a third polarization means (R3) and a third mirror (M3) forming the end of said third branch (B3), said first, second and third polarization means (R1, R2, R3) being configured so that a polarized optical beam entering respectively said first, second or third branch (B1, B2, B3), respectively by the first, second or third input-output port is reflected respectively by the first, second, third mirror (M1, M2, M3) to form a polarized optical beam exiting said branch, having a polarization orthogonal to the polarization of said polarized optical beam entering said branch, the fourth branch (B4) being an input-output branch of said interferometer arranged so as to receive and direct a polarized incident optical beam (S0) toward the fourth input-output port (ES4), the optical polarization splitting and combining means (C1) being configured so as to split in polarization the polarized incident beam (S0) into a first secondary input beam (H14i) and a second secondary input beam (H24i), said first and second secondary input beams having mutually orthogonal polarizations, the first secondary input beam (H14i) travelling through the first, second and third branches of the interferometer following a first optical path to form a first amplified output beam (H14o) and the second secondary input beam (H24i) travelling through the first, second and third branches of the interferometer following a second optical path, reciprocal to the first optical path, to form a second amplified output beam (H24o), said first and second amplified output beams (H14o, H24o) having mutually orthogonal polarizations, and said splitting and recombining means (C1) being configured so as to receive and to spatially, temporally and coherently recombine said first amplified output beam (H14o) and said second output amplified beam (H24o), to form a coherent output beam (S1) propagating in the fourth branch (B4) in the reverse direction with respect to the polarized incident optical beam (S0). |
