Diode-pumped external-cavity surface-emitting laser optimized for spectral bandwidth and pump conversion efficiency. Applications

Summary form only given. Semiconductor lasers are compact low power consuming systems that offer a broad homogeneous gain and a wide operating range from the blue to 3-/spl mu/m (CW, 300-K). They have much potential for application in optical communications, spectroscopy, gas detection, non-linear optics, data storage. Electrically-pumped micro-cavity lasers (VCSEL)offer ultra-low threshold, high-speed dynamic single mode operation, output in a circular astigmatism-free beam and good electrical-to-optical power conversion efficiency. They are, however, limited in output power, and cannot deliver more than /spl sim/3 mW in a highly divergent diffraction-limited beam with a relatively broad line-width (/spl sim/10 MHz). Two new structure designs are described, that can achieve efficient coupling of optical pump radiation into an optimally designed VECSEL micro-cavity for any reasonably well separated combination of pump and laser wavelengths.