Influence of the spatial pump distribution on the performance of high power vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers

The performance of a 1040 nm vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser is studied as function of the size and shape of the pumped area. The input-output characteristics of the device are monitored while simultaneously tracking the temperature in the active region. It is shown that the pump spot shape plays a crucial role in optimizing the laser output. Improvements up to a factor of 5 are found for a super-Gaussian in comparison to the standard Gaussian shape. For the large pump-spot sizes needed for high output powers, it turns out that the power-scalability breaks down due to the suppressed lateral heat flow.

[1]  Jorg Hader,et al.  High-Power Optically Pumped Semiconductor Laser at 1040 nm , 2010, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[2]  Jorg Hader,et al.  Quantum modeling of semiconductor gain materials and vertical‐external‐cavity surface‐emitting laser systems , 2010 .

[3]  G. McConnell,et al.  Femtosecond synchronously in-well pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser. , 2010, Optics express.

[4]  David Burns,et al.  Limits on efficiency and power scaling in semiconductor disk lasers with diamond heatspreaders , 2009 .

[5]  S. Koch,et al.  Numerical study of the influence of an antireflection coating on the operating properties of vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers , 2009 .

[6]  Martin D. Dawson,et al.  Semiconductor disk lasers for the generation of visible and ultraviolet radiation , 2009 .

[7]  Masashi Yoshimura,et al.  Continuous-wave all-solid-state 244 nm deep-ultraviolet laser source by fourth-harmonic generation of an optically pumped semiconductor laser using CsLiB6O10 in an external resonator. , 2008, Optics letters.

[8]  Joachim Wagner,et al.  Resonant optical in-well pumping of an (AlGaIn)(AsSb)-based vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser emitting at 2.35μm , 2007 .

[9]  P. Brick,et al.  Dynamic behavior of 1040nm semiconductor disk lasers on a nanosecond time scale , 2007 .

[10]  S. Koch,et al.  Quantum design of semiconductor active materials: laser and amplifier applications , 2007 .

[11]  Taek Kim,et al.  7W high-efficiency continuous-wave green light generation by intracavity frequency doubling of an end-pumped vertical external-cavity surface emitting semiconductor laser , 2006 .

[12]  Hailong Zhou,et al.  Blue and green optically pumped semiconductor lasers for display , 2005, SPIE OPTO.

[13]  Markus Pessa,et al.  Diamond-microchip GaInNAs vertical external-cavity surface-emitting laser operating CW at 1315nm , 2004 .

[14]  Juan L. A. Chilla,et al.  High-power optically pumped semiconductor lasers , 2004, SPIE LASE.

[15]  A. Tropper,et al.  Vertical-external-cavity semiconductor lasers , 2004 .

[16]  Peter Brick,et al.  8-W high-efficiency continuous-wave semiconductor disk laser at 1000 nm , 2003 .

[17]  Claude Alibert,et al.  Low threshold, room temperature laser diode pumped Sb-based VECSEL emitting around 2.1 /spl mu/m , 2003 .

[18]  U. Keller,et al.  High-power passively mode-locked semiconductor lasers , 2002 .

[19]  Isabelle Sagnes,et al.  Sub-500-fs soliton-like pulse in a passively mode-locked broadband surface-emitting laser with 100 mW average power , 2002 .

[20]  A. Allerman,et al.  High power and good beam quality at 980 nm from a vertical external-cavity surface-emitting laser , 2002 .

[21]  U. Keller,et al.  Passively mode-locked diode-pumped surface-emitting semiconductor laser , 2000, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[22]  D. Burns,et al.  Actively stabilized single-frequency vertical-external-cavity AlGaAs laser , 1999, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[23]  M. Dawson,et al.  High-power diode-pumped AlGaAs surface-emitting laser. , 1999, Applied optics.

[24]  A. Allerman,et al.  Intracavity frequency doubling of a diode-pumped external-cavity surface-emitting semiconductor laser. , 1999, Optics letters.

[25]  M. Kuznetsov,et al.  High-power (>0.5-W CW) diode-pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting semiconductor lasers with circular TEM/sub 00/ beams , 1997, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.