Advance on high power diode laser coupling

During the past 30 years of development, diode lasers have gradually become into energy components from the initial information ones. Especially for the high power diode laser source with high beam quality, it has been transformed from the pumping laser to the direct function laser source, and partly applied in the field of materials processing and national defense. The development situation on the laser units is firstly introduced. Then the various methods of laser combining and the corresponding combining sources are analyzed and discussed. The CIOMP's works on the laser combination are presented. Some suggestions for the development of diode laser industry in China are propounded. The new development trends of the diode laser technology are finally prospected. With the increase of the unit brightness and the mature of laser coupling technology, high power diode lasers, either as the direct sources or indirect sources, will have important impacts on the defense and industrial fields.