US 7,548,575 B1
Self-seeding and phase-locking of an array of lasers
Paul E. Jackson, Longwood, Fla. (US); Gary C. Vanstone, Longwood, Fla. (US); and Edward J. Miesak, Windmere, Fla. (US)
Assigned to Lockheed Martin Corporation, Bethesda, Md. (US)
Filed on May 24, 2006, as Appl. No. 11/439,862.
Int. Cl. H05B 7/148 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 372—108  [372/109; 372/18; 372/25] 16 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus for phase locking a plurality of laser beams to form a plurality of phase-locked beams, said apparatus comprising:
a plurality of lasers; and
an image rotator and recoupler optically connected to each of the plurality of lasers, said image rotator and recoupler comprising an image rotator and a colinear input from said plurality of lasers and output to said plurality of lasers and wherein said plurality of lasers are phase-locked via self-seeding one of said plurality of lasers with another of said plurality of lasers.