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Re: combining laser beams



Carl E. Mungan wrote:

To what extent can one combine beams from separate lasers into a
single beam?

Specifically:
* what system of optics might one use to do the combining?

You mean like a half-silvered mirror?

* assuming the lasers are not synchronized, what issues of coherence
and interference might arise?

It they're not synchronized, the interference pattern
will be highly time dependent.

* given some measure of the beam quality of the input beams (perhaps
M^2 or some other description of the occupation of the various TE and
TM modes), what is the theoretical best possible quality of the
output beam?

Theoretically this is just the two-slit diffraction pattern,
right? The spatial structure of the interference pattern
will depend on the difference in wavevector. The temporal
structure will depend on the difference in frequency.

Any pointers to specific references (preferably including page
numbers) would be greatly appreciated. (But random thoughts off the
top of one's head can also be helpful.)

OtTomH, you can lock lasers with remarkably low
instability, less than 1Hz.

http://www.google.com/search?q=laser+frequency-stability+hz