Fourier-method beam analysis for coherent vertical cavity surface emitting laser arrays

J Opt Soc Am A Opt Image Sci Vis. 2022 Apr 1;39(4):563-570. doi: 10.1364/JOSAA.446584.

Abstract

Effective engineering and exploitation of coherently coupled vertical cavity surface emitting laser arrays will benefit from simple and fast characterization of the optical coupling and coherence. We propose a Fourier method of analyzing beam profiles as an alternative to the prior beam visibility analysis and show that the mode suppression ratio and phase between a pair of supermodes can be extracted. Our analysis enables fast quantitative determination of the array coherence and supermode characteristics.