Numerical simulations of novel high-power high-brightness diode laser structures

Konstantin Boucke; Joseph Rogg; Marc T. Kelemen; Reinhart Poprawe; Guenter Weimann

doi:10.1117/12.432611

9 July 2001 Numerical simulations of novel high-power high-brightness diode laser structures

Konstantin Boucke, Joseph Rogg, Marc T. Kelemen, Reinhart Poprawe, Guenter Weimann

Proceedings Volume 4283, Physics and Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices IX; (2001) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.432611
Event: Symposium on Integrated Optics, 2001, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

One of the key topics in today's semiconductor laser development activities is to increase the brightness of high-power diode lasers. Although structures showing an increased brightness have been developed specific draw-backs of these structures lead to a still strong demand for investigation of alternative concepts. Especially for the investigation of basically novel structures easy-to-use and fast simulation tools are essential to avoid unnecessary, cost and time consuming experiments. A diode laser simulation tool based on finite difference representations of the Helmholtz equation in 'wide-angle' approximation and the carrier diffusion equation has been developed. An optimized numerical algorithm leads to short execution times of a few seconds per resonator round-trip on a standard PC. After each round-trip characteristics like optical output power, beam profile and beam parameters are calculated. A graphical user interface allows online monitoring of the simulation results. The simulation tool is used to investigate a novel high-power, high-brightness diode laser structure, the so-called 'Z-Structure'. In this structure an increased brightness is achieved by reducing the divergency angle of the beam by angular filtering: The round trip path of the beam is two times folded using internal total reflection at surfaces defined by a small index step in the semiconductor material, forming a stretched 'Z'. The sharp decrease of the reflectivity for angles of incidence above the angle of total reflection leads to a narrowing of the angular spectrum of the beam. The simulations of the 'Z-Structure' indicate an increase of the beam quality by a factor of five to ten compared to standard broad-area lasers.

Citation Download Citation

Konstantin Boucke, Joseph Rogg, Marc T. Kelemen, Reinhart Poprawe, and Guenter Weimann "Numerical simulations of novel high-power high-brightness diode laser structures", Proc. SPIE 4283, Physics and Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices IX, (9 July 2001); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.432611

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