Researchers Shao Jianda and Jin Yunxia at the High-Power Laser Components
Technology and Engineering Department, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine
Mechanics (Chinese Academy of Sciences), published in Optics Letters a
jigsaw-grating spectral beam-combining architecture for mid-infrared
continuous-wave lasers. The design stitches multiple small-aperture sub-gratings
distributed within an equivalent large-aperture grating footprint to combine
multiple mid-IR beams efficiently, avoiding dependence on a single
ultra-large-aperture grating, lowering grating manufacturing difficulty and
improving multi-channel scalability. The team presents the approach as a
technical path to scale mid-IR multi-channel spectral beam combining from tens
of watts toward the hundred-watt level and as a reference for building
high-power multi-band (visible–THz) laser platforms.
