Semiconductor Disk Lasers (SDLs) are compact lasers suitable for watt to multi-watt direct generation in the 670-
2350nm waveband and frequency-doubled operation in the ultraviolet and visible regions. This is, however, critically
dependent on the thermal management strategy used as, in this type of laser, the pump is absorbed over micrometer
lengths and the gain and loss are temperature sensitive. In this paper, we compare the two heat dissipation techniques that
have been successfully deployed to-date: the "thin device" approach where the semiconductor active mirror is bonded
onto a heatsink and its substrate subsequently removed, and the "heatspreader" technique where a high thermal
conductivity platelet is directly bonded onto the active part of the unprocessed epilayer. We show that for SDLs emitting
at 1060nm with pump spots of ~80µm diameter, the heatspreader approach outperforms the thin-device alternative, with
the best results being obtained with a diamond heatspreader. Indeed, the thermal resistances are measured to be 4.9, 10.4
and 13.0 K/W for diamond-bonded, SiC-bonded and flip-chip devices respectively. It is also observed, as expected, that
the thermal management strategy indirectly affects the optimum output coupling and thus the overall performance of
these lasers.
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