A single piece optic for coupling the output of a diode laser array into
an optical fiber array is provided. The coupling optic has a planar back
surface which, during use with a diode laser array, is positioned
substantially parallel to the front face of the laser array. The coupling
optic is fabricated from a single substrate and is comprised of a
plurality of optical elements. Depending upon the technique used to
fabricate the optical elements, the individual optical elements may be
trapezoidally-shaped or rectangularly-shaped. The front surface of each
optical element is tilted, thus preventing reflected laser radiation from
resonating within the diode laser's emitters. Preferably the wedge angle
for the tilted front surface is greater than 2 mrad, thus accomplishing
the goal of limiting feedback into the emitters, and less than 4 mrad,
thus reducing beam steering. Additionally each optical element is shaped
to reduce the divergence of the emitters in the fast axis, thus allowing
the output from each emitter to be effectively coupled into the
corresponding optical fiber.