Title

High-power Lasers for Directed-energy Applications: Comment

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-10-2016

Publication Source

Applied Optics

Abstract

Sprangle et al. [Appl. Opt. 54, F201 (2015) recently concluded that our experiments on coherent combining of laser beams over an atmospheric path [Opt. Lett. 36, 4455 (2011) were “effective only because at these low-power levels the linewidth of the lasers was very narrow… and the level of atmospheric turbulence was low….” These conclusions are inaccurate, not relevant to practical high-power coherently combined laser systems, and contradict our most recent experiments with coherent combining of 21 laser beams with a linewidth of about 1 GHz over 7 km distance. In this comment we also challenge the major conclusion of Sprangle et al. [Appl. Opt. 54, F201 (2015) and the more recently published paper by Nelson et al. [Appl. Opt. 55, 1757 (2016) regarding inefficiency of coherent beam combining under typical atmospheric conditions.

Inclusive pages

9950-9953

ISBN/ISSN

1559-128X

Comments

© 2016 Optical Society of America. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modifications of the content of this paper are prohibited.

Permission documentation on file.

Publisher

Optical Society of America

Volume

55

Issue

35

Peer Reviewed

yes

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