Methods for improving the beam quality of high-power diode lasers

Volker Raab; Martin Ostermeyer; Ralf Menzel

doi:10.1117/12.380875

3 April 2000 Methods for improving the beam quality of high-power diode lasers

Volker Raab, Martin Ostermeyer, Ralf Menzel

Proceedings Volume 3889, Advanced High-Power Lasers; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.380875
Event: Advanced High-Power Lasers and Applications, 1999, Osaka, Japan

Abstract

Current commercially available diode lasers with output powers above a few watts lack beam quality, i.e. they have only limited possibility of small foci in combination with long Rayleigh lengths. Recent advances in coherent coupling of such lasers open view to a new generation of high power, high beam quality, low cost lasers suitable for a wide range of technical applications such as microshaping or cutting. Therefore, we performed experiments to couple the 25 diode lasers of a bar with specially coated low-reflection front facets. Mutual coherence can be improved in external resonators as opposed to the internal resonator absent in our case. Additional elements like mode stops can improve beam quality. Here we present results on the coupling of gain- guided broad-area diode lasers in external resonators, both of single emitters and bars of 25 emitters. In the single emitter case we achieved output powers up to 0.8 W at a beam quality of M² equals 16 or 0.4 W with M² equals 3.5 along slow axis. For the bars we achieved 10 W with M² equals 304.

Citation Download Citation

Volker Raab, Martin Ostermeyer, and Ralf Menzel "Methods for improving the beam quality of high-power diode lasers", Proc. SPIE 3889, Advanced High-Power Lasers, (3 April 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.380875

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