High power semiconductor laser with phase-matching optical element

摘要

A semiconductor laser that includes a single mode semiconductor laser coupled to a flared power amplifier is provided, the device including an internal or an external optical element that reinforces the curved wave front of the flared section of the device through phase-matching. By reinforcing the curved wave front via phase-matching, the device is less susceptible to thermal and gain-index coupled perturbations, even at high output powers, resulting in higher beam quality. Exemplary phase-matching optical elements include a grating integrated into the flared amplifier section; an intra-cavity, externally positioned binary optical element; and an intra-cavity, externally positioned cylindrically curved optical element.

主权项

1. A semiconductor laser, comprising:
a single mode (SM) semiconductor laser section; a flared power amplifier section, wherein an SM output from said SM semiconductor laser section is injected into said flared power amplifier section, and wherein an output beam from said flared power amplifier section is comprised of a curved wave front; and a curved grating integrated throughout said flared power amplifier section and configured to reinforce said curved wave front of said output beam of said flared power amplifier section, wherein said curved grating occupies an entire length of said flared power amplifier section, wherein a curvature corresponding to said curved grating matches a phase and a curvature corresponding to said curved wave front of said output beam of said flared power amplifier section.