A. Pietrzak, H. Wenzel, P. Crump, F. Bugge, J. Fricke, M. Spreemann, G. Erbert, and G. Tränkle

Published in:

IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 48, no. 5, pp. 568-575 (2012).

Abstract:

Extremely large epitaxial waveguides with thickness t_WG = 8.6 µm enable diode lasers with very narrow vertical divergence angle. We demonstrate that when such designs are processed in ridge waveguide laser format, there is substantial interaction between the vertical and lateral waveguiding mechanisms. For very narrow stripes with width w << t_WG, such interaction leads to lasing operation in the second order mode in the vertical direction. For the case of an optimal stripe width w ~ t_WG, single fundamental mode operation is achieved, with peak kink-free optical output power of 1.3 W and beam divergence angles (vertical, lateral) of 9° × 6° at full width at half maximum and 17° × 13° with 95% power content. The maximum brightness is 90 MW×cm^-2sr^-1 for 95% power content.

Index Terms:

ridge waveguide lasers, semiconductor lasers, diode lasers, quantum well lasers, high power lasers, laser modes, high brightness laser.

© Copyright 2012 IEEE - All Rights Reserved. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.

Full version in pdf-format.