Improving the beam quality of high-power laser diodes by introducing lateral periodicity into waveguides

Grzegorz Sobczak; Elżbieta Dąbrowska; Marian Teodorczyk; Joanna Kalbarczyk; Andrzej Maląg

doi:10.1117/12.2010664

22 January 2013 Improving the beam quality of high-power laser diodes by introducing lateral periodicity into waveguides

Grzegorz Sobczak, Elżbieta Dąbrowska, Marian Teodorczyk, Joanna Kalbarczyk, Andrzej Maląg

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8702, Laser Technology 2012: Progress in Lasers; 87020B (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2010664
Event: Tenth Symposium on Laser Technology, 2012, Szczecin, Poland

Abstract

Low quality of the optical beam emitted by high-power laser diodes is the main disadvantage of these devices. The two most important reasons are highly non-Gaussian beam profile with relatively wide divergence in the junction plane and the filamentation effect. Designing laser diode as an array of narrow, close to each other single-mode waveguides is one of the solutions to this problem. In such devices called phase locked arrays (PLA) there is no room for filaments formation. The consequence of optical coupling of many single-mode waveguides is the device emission in the form of few almost diffraction limited beams. Because of losses in regions between active stripes the PLA devices have, however, somewhat higher threshold current and lower slope efficiencies compared to wide-stripe devices of similar geometry. In this work the concept of the high-power laser diode resonator consisted of joined PLA and wide stripe segments is proposed. Resulting changes of electro-optical characteristics of PLA are discussed. The devices are based on the asymmetric heterostructure designed for improvement of the catastrophic optical damage threshold as well as thermal and electrical resistances. Due to reduced distance from the active layer to surface in this heterostructure, better stability of current (and gain) distribution with changing drive level is expected. This could lead to better stability of optical field distribution and supermodes control. The beam divergence reduction in the direction perpendicular of the junction plane has been also achieved.

Citation Download Citation

Grzegorz Sobczak, Elżbieta Dąbrowska, Marian Teodorczyk, Joanna Kalbarczyk, and Andrzej Maląg "Improving the beam quality of high-power laser diodes by introducing lateral periodicity into waveguides", Proc. SPIE 8702, Laser Technology 2012: Progress in Lasers, 87020B (22 January 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2010664

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