Enhanced focal-plane irradiance in the presence of thermal blooming

The use of multiple transmitter beams is shown to significantly increase the peak focal-plane irradiance that can be achieved in the presence of thermal blooming. Computer simulation studies of the beam propagation problem show over a factor of 2 increase in the irradiance of a single beam and a factor of 9 increase when three coherent beams are focused on the same target spot. Preliminary experimental results with three mutually noncoherent, nonoverlapping beams are in qualitative agreement with the computer simulation.