8-W high-efficiency high-brightness tapered diode lasers at 976 nm

Márc T. Kelemen; Jürgen Weber; Gudrun Kaufel; Rudolf Moritz; Michael Mikulla; Günter Weimann

doi:10.1117/12.643822

15 February 2006 8-W high-efficiency high-brightness tapered diode lasers at 976 nm

Márc T. Kelemen, Jürgen Weber, Gudrun Kaufel, Rudolf Moritz, Michael Mikulla, Günter Weimann

Proceedings Volume 6104, High-Power Diode Laser Technology and Applications IV; 61040D (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.643822
Event: Lasers and Applications in Science and Engineering, 2006, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

Today tapered diode lasers are mainly used in external resonator configuration for non-linear spectroscopy or frequency doubling for blue-green outputs. Now increased output power and brightness make tapered lasers even attractive for pumping of fibre amplifiers or lasers and fibre coupled modules. We have realized high-power ridge-waveguide tapered diode lasers emitting at 976 nm. The high material quality of the MBE-grown laser structures yields a high internal efficiency of more than 97% and low internal losses of 0.5 cm^-1. Tapered single emitters consist of a ridge section with a length of 500 μm and a taper section with a length of 3000 μm. The taper angle was 6°. A threshold current of 1.07 A corresponding to a threshold current density of 222 A/cm² has been obtained. The maximum slope efficiency of 1.09 W/A together with the low series resistance of 35 m Ω results in a high wall-plug efficiency of 58% at 5.5 W output power. This high wall-plug efficiency remains nearly constant up to operation currents of 9 A corresponding to output powers of more than 8 W. At an operation current of 15 A an output power of 12.5 W has been achieved, which is to our knowledge the highest output power in continuous wave mode for tapered diode lasers reported so far. At 8 W a nearly diffraction limited behavior with values for M² of less than 1.5 have been observed resulting in a brightness of more than 660 MW/cm².

Citation Download Citation

Márc T. Kelemen, Jürgen Weber, Gudrun Kaufel, Rudolf Moritz, Michael Mikulla, and Günter Weimann "8-W high-efficiency high-brightness tapered diode lasers at 976 nm", Proc. SPIE 6104, High-Power Diode Laser Technology and Applications IV, 61040D (15 February 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.643822

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