• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.150-156
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• 2024

One of the key factors in research regarding long-distance laser beam propagation, as in free-space optical communication or laser power transmission, is the transmission efficiency of the laser beam. As a way to improve efficiency, we perform extensive numerical simulations of the effect of modifying the laser beam's profile, especially replacing the fundamental Gaussian beam with a super-Gaussian beam. Numerical simulations of the transmitted power in the ideal diffraction-limited beam diameter determined by the optical system of the transmitter, after about 1-km propagation, reveal that the second-order super-Gaussian beam can yield superior performance to that of the fundamental Gaussian beam, in both single-channel and coherently combined multi-channel laser transmitters. The improvement of the transmission efficiency for a 1-km propagation distance when using a second-order super-Gaussian beam, in comparison with a fundamental Gaussian beam, is estimated at over 1.2% in the singlechannel laser transmitter, and over 4.2% and over 4.6% in coherently combined 3- and 7-channel laser transmitters, respectively. For a range of the propagation distance varying from 750 to 1,250 m, the improvement in transmission efficiency by use of the second-order super-Gaussian beam is estimated at over 1.2% in the single-channel laser transmitter, and over 4.1% and over 4.0% in the coherently combined 3- and 7-channel laser transmitters, respectively. These simulation results will pave the way for future advances in the generation of higher-order super-Gaussian beams and the development of long-distance optical energy-transfer technology.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.276-285
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• 2021

This paper reports the study of the line-beam optical system of the laser lift-off (LLO) equipment used in the OLED manufacturing process. To obtain both a long process depth and a narrow width of the line beam, even with the poor M² value of the laser source, the research is focused on the optical system, including the beam transformation unit (BTU). We also propose optical configurations for the super-Gaussian distribution and the fiber-based BTU for the flat-top distribution.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.406-415
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• 2024

The major error factors that degrade the efficiency of coherent beam combining (CBC) are numerically studied in a comprehensive manner, paying particular attention to phase, tip-tilt, polarization angle, and beam quality. The power in the bucket (PIB), normalized to the zero-error PIB, is used as a figure of merit to quantify the effect of each error factor. To maintain a normalized PIB greater than or equal to 95% in a 3-channel CBC configuration, the errors in phase, tip-tilt, and polarization angle should be less than 1.06 radians, 1.25 ㎛, and 1.06 radians respectively, when each of the three parameters is calculated independently with the other two set to zero. In a worst-case scenario of the composite errors within the parameter range for the independent-95%-normalized-PIB condition, the aggregate effect would reduce the normalized PIB to 83.8%. It is noteworthy that the PIB performances of a CBC system, depending on phase and polarization-angle errors, share the same characteristic feature. A statistical approach for each error factor is also introduced, to assess a CBC system with an extended number of channels. The impact of the laser's beam-quality factor M² on the combining efficiency is also analyzed, based on a super-Gaussian beam. When M² increases from 1 to 1.3, the normalized PIB is reduced by 2.6%, 11.8%, 12.8%, and 13.2% for a single-channel configuration and 3-, 7-, and 19-channel CBC configurations respectively. This comprehensive numerical study is expected to pave the way for advances in the evaluation and design of multichannel CBC systems and other related applications.