Optimizing Vertical and Lateral Waveguides of kW-Class Laser Bars for Higher Peak Power, Efficiency and Lateral Beam Quality

Optimizing Vertical and Lateral Waveguides of kW-Class Laser Bars for Higher Peak Power, Efficiency and Lateral Beam Quality

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GaAs-based, highly-efficient, kW-class, 1-cm laser bars with high peak power Popt and improved beam quality in quasi-continuous-wave mode are presented.The use of an extreme-triple-asymmetric (ETAS) epitaxial layer structure diminishes power saturation of high-power bars at high driving current.The resulting ETAS bars with 4 mm cavity produce a record 1.9 kW peak power, limited by available current supply, with a maximum power conversion efficiency ηE = jmannino.com 67% at THS = 25 °C heat-sink temperature.Both Popt and ηE have been increased further by operating the bars at THS = −70 °C.

Sub-zero operation raises the Popt here to 2.3 kW and the maximum ηE to 74%.A second configuration of ETAS bars with optimized lateral layout is further realized to obtain narrow lateral beam divergence θ up to 2 kA driving current, without sacrificing Popt and ηE.A 2–3° lower θ (95% power level) is observed over a wide operating range at room temperature.A high degree of polarization is also maintained across the whole operatingrange.