Spectral combining of high-power fiber laser beams using Bragg grating in PTR glass

High-efficient volume Bragg gratings (VBG) in inorganic photo-thermo-refractive (PTR) glass were recently reported for the use in high-power laser systems. Both transmission and reflection gratings have shown diffraction efficiency greater than 95% from visible to near IR spectra in a wide range of spatial frequencies. Those gratings have exhibited perfect thermal, optical and mechanical stability. Spectral beam, combining (SBC) using PTR Bragg grating with efficiency more than 92% for two 100 W Yb-fiber-laser beams with the 11 nm wavelength separation between them is reported. The paper presents results of modeling and experimental study of a beam combiner for high-power lasers with the only passive PTR grating component in it. Two laser beams illuminate a thick Bragg grating which has only two symmetric resonant angles providing total diffraction of a beam with a certain wavelength. Incidence angle for all transmitting beams should correspond to the Bragg angle for the diffracted beam. Transmitting beams are not diffracted by grating if spectral shift corresponds to zeros in a spectral selectivity curve, and propagate in the same direction as a diffracted beam. It is shown the efficient trade-off between grating period and refractive index modulation allows modeling of high-efficient combining setup for each of arbitrary chosen grating thickness. Comparison between calculation results and experimental data is given.