Comparison between 50-W tapered laser arrays and tapered single emitters

Christian Scholz; Konstantin Boucke; Reinhart Poprawe; Marc T. Keleman; Jürgen Weber; Michael Mikulla; Günter Weimann

doi:10.1117/12.646125

15 February 2006 Comparison between 50-W tapered laser arrays and tapered single emitters

Christian Scholz, Konstantin Boucke, Reinhart Poprawe, Marc T. Keleman, Jürgen Weber, Michael Mikulla, Günter Weimann

Proceedings Volume 6104, High-Power Diode Laser Technology and Applications IV; 61040G (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.646125
Event: Lasers and Applications in Science and Engineering, 2006, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

During the last few years high power diode laser arrays have become well established for direct material processing due to their high efficiency of more than 50%. But standard broad-area waveguide designs are susceptible to modal instabilities and filamentations resulting in low beam qualities. The beam quality increases by more than a factor of four by using tapered laser arrays, but so far they suffer from lower efficiencies. Therefore tapered lasers are mainly used today as single emitters in external resonator configurations. With increased output power and lifetime, they will be much more attractive for material processing and for pumping of fiber amplifiers. High efficiency tapered mini bars emitting at a wavelength of 980 nm are developed, and in order to qualify the bars, the characteristics of single emitters and mini bars from the same wafer have been compared. The mini bars have a width of 6 mm with 12 emitters. The ridge waveguide tapered lasers consist of a 500 μm long ridge and a 2000 μm long tapered section. The results show very similar behavior of the electro-optical characteristics and the beam quality for single emitters and bars. Due to different junction temperatures, different slope efficiencies were measured: 0.8 W/A for passively cooled mini bars and 1.0 W/A for actively cooled mini-bars and single emitters. The threshold current of 0.7 A per emitter is the same for single emitters and emitter arrays. Output powers of more than 50 W in continuous wave mode for a mini bar with standard packaging demonstrates the increased power of tapered laser bars.

Citation Download Citation

Christian Scholz, Konstantin Boucke, Reinhart Poprawe, Marc T. Keleman, Jürgen Weber, Michael Mikulla, and Günter Weimann "Comparison between 50-W tapered laser arrays and tapered single emitters", Proc. SPIE 6104, High-Power Diode Laser Technology and Applications IV, 61040G (15 February 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.646125

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