Mid-infrared high-power diode lasers and modules

High-power diode lasers in the mid-infrared wavelength range between 1.8 mu m and 2.3 mu m have emerged new possibilities for applications like processing and accelerated drying of materials, medical surgery, infrared countermeasures or for pumping of solid-state and semiconductor disc lasers. We will present results on MBE grown (AlGaIn)(AsSb) quantum-well diode laser single emitters with emitter widths between 90 mu m and 200 mu m. In addition laser bars with 20% or 30% fill factor have been processed. More than 30% maximum wall-plug efficiency in cw operation for single emitters and laser bars has been reached. Even at 2200nm more than 15W have been demonstrated with a 30% fill factor bar. Due to an increasing interest in pulsed operation modes for these mid-infrared lasers, we have investigated single emitters and laser bars at 1940nm for different pulse times and duty cycles. More than 9W have been measured at 30A with 500ns pulse time and 1% duty cycle without COMD for a single emitter. Most applications mentioned before need fiber coupled output power, therefore fiber coupled modules based on single emitters or laser bars have been developed. Single-emitter based modules show 600mW out of a 200 mu m core fiber with NA=0.22 at different wavelengths between 1870nm and 1940nm. At 2200nm an output power of 450mW ex fiber impressively demonstrates the potential of GaSb based diode lasers well beyond wavelengths of 2 mu m. Combining several laser bars, 20W out of a 600 mu m core fiber have been established at 1870nm. Finally for a 7 bar stack at 1870nm we have demonstrated more than 85W at 50A in qcw mode.