Spontaneous filamentation in broad-area diode laser amplifiers

Author

Lang, Robert J. ; Mehuys, David ; Welch, David F. ; Goldberg, Lew

Author_Institution

Spectra Diode Labs., San Jose, CA, USA

Volume

30

Issue

3

fYear

1994

fDate

3/1/1994 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

685

Lastpage

694

Abstract

The stability of a plane wave propagating in single- and double-pass broad-area diode laser amplifiers is analyzed. It is found that laterally periodic perturbations exhibit a longitudinal variation that is a mixture of exponential growth and periodic oscillation. The latter oscillation has a spatial period related to the Talbot distance. Due to the interaction between these two effects, double-pass amplifiers become unstable against lateral perturbations, and the field spontaneously collapses into a periodic array of filaments. Experimental results are presented that show good agreement with the theoretical analysis

Keywords

laser theory; oscillations; perturbation theory; semiconductor lasers; Talbot distance; broad-area diode laser amplifiers; double-pass; double-pass amplifiers; exponential growth; filaments; lateral perturbations; laterally periodic perturbations; longitudinal variation; periodic array; periodic oscillation; plane wave propagation; single-pass; spatial period; spontaneous filamentation; spontaneously collapses; stability; Diode lasers; High power amplifiers; Laser modes; Nonlinear optics; Optical amplifiers; Optical propagation; Optical refraction; Power lasers; Pulse amplifiers; Semiconductor optical amplifiers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.286155

Filename

286155