Experimental demonstration of using divergence cost-function in SPGD algorithm for coherent beam combining with tip/tilt control

A novel approach of tip/tilt control by using divergence cost function in stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) algorithm for coherent beam combining (CBC) is proposed and demonstrated experimentally in a seven-channel 2-W fiber amplifier array with both phase-locking and tip/tilt control, for the first time to our best knowledge. Compared with the conventional power-in-the-bucket (PIB) cost function for SPGD optimization, the tip/tilt control using divergence cost function ensures wider correction range, automatic switching control of program, and freedom of camera's intensity-saturation. Homemade piezoelectric-ring phase-modulator (PZT PM) and adaptive fiber-optics collimator (AFOC) are developed to correct piston-and tip/tilt-type aberrations, respectively. The PIB cost function is employed for phase-locking via maximization of SPGD optimization, while the divergence cost function is used for tip/tilt control via minimization. An average of 432-mu rad of divergence metrics in open loop has decreased to 89-mu rad when tip/tilt control implemented. In CBC, the power in the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the main lobe increases by 32 times, and the phase residual error is less than lambda/15. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America