Coherence properties of two fiber lasers coupled by mutual injection.

Phase locking of two fiber lasers is obtained by mutual injection. The coherence properties of this composite laser are analyzed. In the most general case, the radiations at the two output mirrors of the laser are not mutually coherent. The cross-correlation of the two emitted beams shows that an extra-cavity delay line is required to get stable and high visibility interference fringes. Such a laser configuration is attractive for coherent beam combining in the far field provided the multiple output beams are properly time delayed.