We report the development of a fiber-coupled diode laser module with high spatial and spectral brightness. Four
arrays of diode laser bars are multiplexed using polarization and narrow-band wavelength combination. The module
achieves 500 W of output power from a 200 μm, 0.2 NA fiber. The output spectrum, composed of contributions
from more than 150 emitters, is narrowed using VBGs and has nearly 100% content within +/- 1.5 nm of 975 nm at
full power.
We report the development of a fiber-coupled diode laser module with high spatial and spectral brightness. Four arrays
of diode laser bars are multiplexed using polarization and narrow-band wavelength combination. The module achieves
500 W of output power from a 200 μm, 0.2 NA fiber. The output spectrum, composed of contributions from more than
150 emitters, is narrowed using VBGs and has nearly 100% content within +/- 1.5 nm of 975 nm at full power.
The state-of-the-art beam quality from high-brightness, fiber-coupled diode laser modules has been significantly improved in the last few years, with commercially available modules now rivaling the brightness of lamp-pumped Nd:YAG lasers. We report progress in the development of these systems for a variety of applications, such as material processing and pumping of solid state and fiber lasers. Experimental data and simulation results for wavelength stabilized outputs from 200 µm diameter fibers at 975 nm for power levels greater than 200 W will be presented. The enabling technology in these products is supported by key developments in tailored diode laser bars with low slow axis divergence, micro-optics, diode laser packaging, and modular architecture.
Fiber lasers have made significant progress in terms of power output, beam quality and operational robustness over the
past few years. Key to this progress has been advances in two technologies - fiber technology and 9xx nm diode laser
pump technology based on single emitters. We present the operational characteristics of our new high brightness 9xx nm
fiber laser pump sources based on diode laser bars and diode laser bar arrays and discuss the design trade offs involved
for realization of devices focused on this application. These trade offs include achieving the lowest slow axis divergence
while maintaining high wall plug efficiency and minimizing facet power density to maximize reliability.
We present the latest development of high brightness, diode laser systems at Coherent Direct Diode Systems.
Experimental results on diode laser modules with greater than 100 W with beam quality better than 10 mm•mrad
will be presented. Through a combination of diode laser emitter improvements and narrow-band (< 10 nm)
wavelength combination, we improve the spatial beam quality of diode laser systems significantly. The presentation
will show a path that scales these diode laser systems to a kW-class output power from a 100 μm fiber with a single
wavelength.
Using wavelength beam combination, we report greater than 100 W out of a 100 μm core, 0.2 numerical aperture
fiber. We emphasize that this is reliable CW power from an optical system that does not suffer from distortion due to
heating in gold-coated, polymer-based diffraction gratings. We show that using high-brightness bars with single-mode
emitters, the wavelength beam combination technique is capable of achieving high power out of a 50 μm core,
0.2 numerical aperture fiber with good coupling efficiency.
In this work, we present the development of a suite of high brightness, fiber-coupled diode lasers at Coherent Direct Diode Systems. Experimental results of high coupling efficiency into 50-200 μm, 0.2 numerical aperture (NA) fibers will be presented. In addition to the high-brightness laser diode bar with single mode emitters, various configurations of diode laser bars with multimode, broad area emitters will be utilized to achieve similar level of brightness. The enabling technology in these products is supported by key developments in micro and macro optics, diode laser packaging, and system architecture.
Fiber-coupled systems based on broad-area multimode emitters require complicated optical trains in order to transform their poor quality output beam into a usable form. Recently, Nuvonyx has reported implementations of a single spatial mode, high-brightness laser diode bar with significantly improved beam quality. These laser bars represent a broad technology platform at the core of many Nuvonyx systems. The low output divergence of these devices enables efficient coupling into a 400 &mgr;m core, 0.22 numerical aperture fiber with a single focusing lens. Larger systems using stacks of high-brightness diode laser bars can achieve greater than 1.7 kW output from this same fiber size, corresponding to a power density level exceeding 1.4 MW/cm2. The high-brightness bars reported here are compatible with techniques for achieving high spatial or spectral brightness. Using external feedback elements such as a volume Bragg grating, the output spectrum can be narrowed to less than 0.25 nm and is stabilized to dλ/dI = 4 pm/A and dλ/dT = 2 pm/°C. Using spectral beam combination, a single high brightness bar can be coupled into a 100 &mgr;m core, 0.22 NA fiber with approximately 90% efficiency.
There are many advantages of delivering optical power from high power laser diode arrays through an optical fiber.
However, most high power diode lasers require complicated optical trains in order to couple their light into a fiber
because of the poor beam quality. Recently, Nuvonyx has reported implementations of a single spatial mode, high
brightness laser diode bar technology that exhibits much improved beam quality. Optical power from the high brightness
laser diode arrays is coupled into a 400 &mgr;m core fiber with a 0.22 numerical aperture (NA) at power density levels
exceeding 1.4 MW/cm2. These systems are suitable as standalone industrial direct diode laser systems or as multikilowatt
fiber laser pump sources. In addition, Nuvonyx presents experimental results of further development in its fiber
coupled diode laser systems program including techniques for wavelength stabilization and spectral beam combination.
KEYWORDS: Semiconductor lasers, High power lasers, Diodes, Reliability, Laser systems engineering, Copper, Heat treatments, Manufacturing, High power diode lasers, Thermal modeling
In order to meet the ever increasing demands of many high power laser diode customers, Nuvonyx has worked to
improve a number of key metrics of the diode laser package. The most often challenged specifications are power per bar, efficiency, and reliability in both hard pulse and constant current mode. In response to these requests, Nuvonyx has worked to offer commercial component devices in excess of 100 and 150 watts per bar package in multiple wavelengths. The packages are routinely combined to form single stacks that generate greater than 3.5 kilowatts each and two-dimensional arrays which produce light in excess of 10 kilowatts. These parts all demonstrate predicted lifetimes in excess of 10,000 hours. The micro-channel cooled heat sink has also been improved by closer matching the coefficient of thermal expansion of the cooler to the laser diode bar, which allows for harder solders such as gold-tin to be employed. All of this work has helped to meet the specifications of the most demanding laser diode customers.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.