Efficient combiner based on a Brillouin nonlinearity

We investigate the possibility of scaling "Brillouin" combiners up to pump intensity levels ~0.2 GW/cm² at an energy of 15 J and a wavelength λ_p= 1.06 μm. We obtain a simple numerical criterion for operational stability of a system consisting of a master oscillator, an amplifier, and a combiner. We analyze the parasitic noise in the combiner. We show experimentally that the combiner possesses an energy efficiency near 0.8 while preserving the diffraction-limited directivity of the amplified signal. We have simulated the experimental situation in the periodic-pulse regime.