Theoretical analysis of tuning coherent laser array for several applications.

Theoretical analysis for the far-field diffraction of the coherent laser array (CLA) is presented. Based on the theoretical model of the propagation of CLA, the conditions and restrictions for coherent beam combination, two-dimensional steering, and dark-hollow beam generation are theoretically described in detail. With properly organized phase distributions and tilt control, the peak location of the far-field pattern of the CLA could shift two-dimensionally in a large scale of steering angle. With additional amplitude modulation, the far-field pattern could have special shapes. The simulated results agree with the theoretical analysis. It is a feasible way to realize all these applications by a CLA with well-arranged phase distributions and/or additional amplitude modulation.