Diode laser produces 10.6-W output power at 915 nm with high efficiency

Diode laser produces 10.6-W output power at 915 nm with high efficiency

Researchers from Opto Power (Tucson, AZ) report achieving 10.6-W continuous-wave (CW) output power at 915 nm from indium gallium arsenide/aluminum gallium arsenide InGaAs/AlGaAs diode lasers. Each laser was constructed of an InGaAs quantum-well active region sandwiched between AlGaAs confinement layers, according to the researchers who presented their results in February at OFC (San Jose, CA). The diodes were bonded p-side down in 100-µm stripes on a conduction-cooled heat sink. U¥to 59% power-conversion efficiencies were observed for the 2-mm-cavity-length diodes. The company`s previous CW high-power mark at 915 nm was 6 W from two uncoated 100-µm-wide apertures of a broad-area diode laser (See Laser Focus World, Oct. 1997, p. 9).

Separately, company researchers reported obtaining more than 3000 hours of continuous operation in tests of high-power diode-laser arrays operating at 60 W. The arrays were constructed 1 cm wide and yielded 70 W of multimode CW optical power at 80-A input current at 25°C. Slope and power-conversion efficiencies were in excess of 1 W/A and 55%, respectively.