DocumentCode :
1964173
Title :
Wavelength beam combining of mid-IR semiconductor lasers
Author :
Goyal, A.K. ; Sanchez, A. ; Turner, G.W. ; Fan, T.Y. ; Liau, Z.L. ; Manfra, M.J. ; Foti, P.J. ; Missaggia, L. ; Brien, P.O. ; Daneu, J.L.
Author_Institution :
Lincoln Lab., MIT, Lexington, MA, USA
Volume :
2
fYear :
2001
fDate :
2001
Firstpage :
532
Abstract :
Semiconductor lasers operating in the mid-infrared between λ~3-5 μm are of interest for a variety of commercial and military applications. Some applications, such as infrared countermeasures, require multiwatt-class beams with near-diffraction-limited beam quality. Achieving such a high brightness beam from a single semiconductor laser has proven to be challenging at any wavelength. To achieve this goal, we are pursuing the approach of wavelength beam combining (WBC) to scale the brightness of a single laser element, which has relatively low power, by the number of elements in an array. With WBC, the beam quality of the combined beam is close to that of a single element while the power is that of the array. This is achieved by superimposing the beams from individual elements of a laser array, each operating at a different wavelength, both in the near field and far field by means of a dispersive element such as a diffraction grating. We describe the application of WBC to an array of λ~4 μm, broad-area, optically-pumped semiconductor lasers
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; brightness; gallium compounds; laser cavity resonators; laser mode locking; optical pumping; semiconductor lasers; 4 micron; GaSb; cylindrical microlens; diffraction grating; external-cavity resonator; far-field divergence; first-order diffracted beam; high brightness beam; integrated absorber design; intracavity filter; microlensed laser module; mid-infrared semiconductor lasers; near-diffraction-limited beam quality; optically-pumped semiconductor lasers; solid-source MBE; spectrally-dispersed image; wavelength beam combining; wavelength-locked conditions; Diffraction gratings; Fiber lasers; Laser beams; Lenses; Microoptics; Optical arrays; Pump lasers; Semiconductor laser arrays; Semiconductor lasers; Surface emitting lasers;
fLanguage :
English
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, 2001. LEOS 2001. The 14th Annual Meeting of the IEEE
Conference_Location :
San Diego, CA
ISSN :
1092-8081
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7105-4
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/LEOS.2001.968924
Filename :
968924
Link To Document :
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