Modeling and measurements of the radiative characteristics of high-power α-DFB lasers

Abstract

A new above-threshold model of α-DFB lasers is presented. It is based on a generalized beam-propagation method and takes into account spatial hole burning and self-heating effects. Up to moderate output powers, a good agreement between simulated and measured radiative characteristics is obtained. The theoretical model was used to design an optimized laser structure with a 4-mm-long cavity, which yielded a maximum output power of 3 W with a times-diffraction-limit factor of M <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> /spl ap/3.