The goal of deploying a high-power laser directed energy effector on a mobile platform creates several challenges beyond the primary requirement of high laser power. The pump sources and beam conditioning optics that are used in industrial lasers do not provide the low volume and mass required for deployment on a mobile platform. Similarly, use of conventional discrete spherical and aspherical optical elements does not provide the level of beam control and efficiency required to achieve the necessary on-target power and spot size. We describe how freeform optics are used to realize pump sources and beam combining systems with the high levels of optical performance and efficiency, coupled with low mass and volume, required to meet the low-SWaP targets set for deployable LDEW systems.

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Roy McBride, Gilles Diederich, Paul Graham, Callum Wreford, and Natalia Trela-McDonald, "Monolithic freeform optic arrays for low-SWaP laser directed energy effectors," Proc. SPIE 11867, Technologies for Optical Countermeasures XVIII and High-Power Lasers: Technology and Systems, Platforms, Effects V, 118670J (Presented at SPIE Security + Defence: 12 September 2021; Published: 12 September 2021); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2600216.