The Standard Quantum Limit of Coherent Beam Combining

Coherent beam combining refers to the process of generating a bright output beam by merging independent input beams with locked relative phases. We report the first quantum mechanical noise limit calculations for coherent beam combining and compare our results to quantum-limited amplification. Our coherent beam combining scheme is based on an optical Fourier transformation which renders the scheme compatible with integrated optics. The scheme can be layed out for an arbitrary number of input beams and approaches the shot noise limit for a large number of inputs.