Microexternal cavity tapered lasers at 670 nm with 5 W peak power and nearly diffraction-limited beam quality

Abstract

Wavelength-stabilized compact laser systems at 670 nm on a micro-optical bench are presented. The resonator concept consists of a tapered semiconductor gain medium and a reflection Bragg grating as a wavelength selective resonator mirror. In pulse operation mode with 100 ns pulses, an optical peak power of 5 W with a spectral width below 150 pm was achieved. Nearly diffraction-limited beam quality at optical output powers up to 1 W is obtained. Such laser systems can be used, e.g., for Raman spectroscopy and as pumping sources for frequency conversion toward UV spectral range.