Performance and lifetime of high-power diode lasers and diode laser systems

High-power diode lasers have reached output power and reliability to meet requirements for industrial applications. Stacking of laser elements to modules increases the output power, beam shaping techniques allow to focus the radiation of a module to a single spot. An integrated diode laser systems with totally 50 laser bars is shown, that includes cooling, power supply and control unit. The laser radiation is transmitted by an optical fiber and an objective focuses the radiation onto the workpiece with a round spot of less than 1 mm diameter and cw power of more than 1kW.