High-power 2.0 μm semiconductor disk laser-Influence of lateral lasing

Abstract

The influence of lateral lasing on the high-power performance of 2 μm GaSb-based optically pumped semiconductor disk laser (SDL) has been investigated. The maximum cw output power of the SDL exceeded 4.1 W at 20 °C heat sink temperature. The occurrence of lateral lasing was observed by recording the emission spectrum and the emitted optical power in the in-plane direction of the SDL chip. We investigated the conditions for which lateral lasing occurs and demonstrate an effective means to suppress this unwanted phenomenon even for small SDL chip sizes comparable to the pump spot diameter. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.