The first known working phase-coherent fiber laser array system was demonstrated by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory’s Intelligent Optics team. This system will provide battlefield improvements to directed energy weapons and laser communications systems.
The 21 element optical system uses internal interference feedback of multi-laser beam tails that allow the system to deliver the equal amount of total energy as a monolithic single-aperture laser. The benefit of this design is the energy density is several times higher at the center of the combined beam, making the system able to be used as a directed energy laser weapon or a countermeasure system. The system took more than ten years to develop and test and will facilitate the future development of scalable laser weapons.
