Mode control for high performance laser diode sources

Paul Leisher; Kirk Price; Shabbir Bashar; Ling Bao; Hua Huang; Jun Wang; Damian Wise; Shiguo Zhang; Suhit Das; Mark DeFranza; Aaron Hodges; Utsu Trifan; David Balsley; Weimin Dong; Mike Grimshaw; Mark DeVito; Jake Bell; Robert Martinsen; Jason Farmer; Paul Crump; Steve Patterson

doi:10.1117/12.778392

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3 April 2008 Mode control for high performance laser diode sources

Paul Leisher, Kirk Price, Shabbir Bashar, Ling Bao, Hua Huang, Jun Wang, Damian Wise, Shiguo Zhang, Suhit Das, Mark DeFranza, Aaron Hodges, Utsu Trifan, David Balsley, Weimin Dong, Mike Grimshaw, Mark DeVito, Jake Bell, Robert Martinsen, Jason Farmer, Paul Crump, Steve Patterson

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Proceedings Volume 6952, Laser Source Technology for Defense and Security IV; 69520C (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.778392
Event: SPIE Defense and Security Symposium, 2008, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

We report on recent progress in the control of optical modes toward the improvement of commercial high-performance diode laser modules. Control of the transverse mode has allowed scaling of the optical mode volume, increasing the peak output power of diode laser emitters by a factor of two. Commercially-available single emitter diodes operating at 885 nm now exhibit >25 W peak (12 W rated) at >60% conversion efficiency. In microchannel-cooled bar format, these lasers operate >120 W at 62% conversion efficiency. Designs of similar performance operating at 976 nm have shown >37,000 equivalent device hours with no failures. Advances in the control of lateral modes have enabled unprecedented brightness scaling in a fiber-coupled package format. Leveraging scalable arrays of single emitters, the conductively-cooled nLIGHT Pearl^TM package now delivers >80 W peak (50 W rated) at >53% conversion efficiency measured from a 200-μm core fiber output and >45 W peak (35 W rated) at >52% conversion efficiency measured from a 100-μm fiber output. nLIGHT has also expanded its product portfolio to include wavelength locking by means of external volume Bragg gratings. By controlling the longitudinal modes of the laser, this technique is demonstrated to produce a narrow, temperature-stabilized spectrum, with minimal performance degradation relative to similar free-running lasers.

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Paul Leisher, Kirk Price, Shabbir Bashar, Ling Bao, Hua Huang, Jun Wang, Damian Wise, Shiguo Zhang, Suhit Das, Mark DeFranza, Aaron Hodges, Utsu Trifan, David Balsley, Weimin Dong, Mike Grimshaw, Mark DeVito, Jake Bell, Robert Martinsen, Jason Farmer, Paul Crump, and Steve Patterson "Mode control for high performance laser diode sources", Proc. SPIE 6952, Laser Source Technology for Defense and Security IV, 69520C (3 April 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.778392

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