Fiber Laser Beam Combining for High Efficiency and Light-Weight HEL Systems

Aculight proposes a fiber beam combining approach that provides the efficiency, thermal management, power-independent beam quality and ruggedness of fiber lasers with a system architecture scaleable to 10 kW and beyond. The approach is scaleable to 100+kW for military directed energy applications such as defense against rockets, artillery and mortars (RAM). The proposed work leverages Aculight’s extensive experience in beam combining, and the ongoing development of high power, narrow line width, polarized fiber amplifiers. The project plan builds on proof-of-principle experiments already completed by Aculight and includes an experimental demonstration of the key concept in the Phase I, a 1 kW system demonstration in the Phase II, and a 10+kW system to be developed in Phase III.