3-W high-brightness tapered diode lasers at 735 nm based on tensile-strained GaAsP QWs

Tensile strained GaAsP quantum wells embedded in AlGaAs waveguide structures are used to realize high power, high brightness short wavelength tapered laser diodes. At 735nm these laser diodes show up to 3W nearly diffraction limited output power with a wall plug efficiency of about 40%. Single spectral mode behavior is observed at output power levels up to 1W. From aging test a high realiability with lifetime exceeding 5000 can be derived comparable to results obtained from broad area laser diodes with the same aperture width. There are only small changes of the beam quality during aging. In conclusion it is shown that well designed tapered laser are a step forward to high efficiency, diffraction limited light soruces in the Watt-range which can be easily fabricated in high volumes.

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