Spectral beam combining for security as well as terrestrial, satellite, and deep space communication

Spectral Beam Combining (SBC) is a useful tool for power scaling of optical systems as well as for multiplexing in communications. We will give an overview of different concepts for SBC and compare them regarding channel count, spectral properties and power handling. For this regard, we will present our examples of these concepts, ranging from a 20kW spectral combiner for high power application over systems in the 100W-range for free-space communications in different spectral regions down to miniaturized combiner concepts for multi-W applications to reduce the footprint.