Talbot cavity redesigned for increased supermode discrimination with reduced loss.

Talbot effect is a well known optical phenomenon that can be used to perform passive coherent laser combination. Using an appropriately configured Talbot cavity, an array of laser elements can be forced to oscillate in a single supermode with a spatially coherent output. One disadvantage of the Talbot cavity is the high loss incurred when the array is configured to provide good supermode discrimination. In this Letter, we present a new arrangement of the laser elements in the cavity with all of the elements pointing toward the common center of the array in the plane of the coupled feedback. This configuration provides significantly increased supermode discrimination along with significantly reduced loss.