14.3 W quasicontinuous wave front-facet power from broad-waveguide Al-free 970 nm diode lasers

Abstract

Wide-stripe, 0.97 μm emitting Al-free InGaAs(P)/InGaP/GaAs broad-waveguide separate confinement heterostructure quantum-well lasers demonstrate a record value for quasicontinuous wave (QCW) output power: 14.3 W (100-μm-wide stripe, 100 μs-wide pulses); and reach catastrophic optical mirror damage (COMD) in QCW operation at an optical power density of 22.5 MW/cm2; that is, 40% higher than COMD levels in cw operation. The devices have low internal losses (αi=1 cm−1) and high external differential quantum efficiency (86% for 2-mm-long lasers), and exhibit only 10–20 °C temperature rises in the active region at 10 W QCW power. We also show that long-cavity, large-contact-area devices exhibit relatively little spectral broadening with increased output power.