Geometric frustration in large arrays of coupled lasers

A new method for phase locking several thousands of laser channels is presented. This is achieved by incorporating all the laser channels into a common degenerate resonator that can support any transverse electric field distribution.The degenerate cavity is comprised of an Nd-YAG crystal gain medium that can support many laser channels, front and rear mirrors, and a mask of an array of N apertures arranged in a desired two dimensional lattice placed adjacent to the rear mirror.