Phase Locking a Fiber Laser Array via Diffractive Coupling

We demonstrate phase locking of a linear array of seven fiber lasers via diffractive coupling. Coupling between the lasers is achieved by a common output coupler positioned at a quarter Talbot distance from the lasers. The output beams are anti-phase locked with a measured far-field fringe contrast of 82%, and their total output power is higher than that obtained when the lasers operate individually. We measure an exponential phase decorrelation between distant lasers in the array, and discuss its fundamental limitation on scalability of this and similar local coupling methods.