Coherent recombination of laser beams with interferometrical phase control

A HeNe laser beam is split into four component beams which are subsequently transmitted through four polarization-preserving monomode fibres. At the end of the fibres the emerging beams are coherently recombined in pairs in two steps using inverse beamsplitter cubes. The unavoidable phase differences within each pair of beams, which are caused by temperature and pressure fluctuations in the fibre environment, are detected interferometrically at the fibre ends. Using homodyne techniques, these differences are measured and compensated for by lengthening the optical path in the individual fibres with piezo-electric stretching. With appropriate adjustment of the relative phases the emerging beams can be superimposed onto each other so as to re-form one single coherent beam.