Open AccessFactors influencing brightness and beam quality of conventional and distributed Bragg reflector tapered laser diodes in absence of self‐heating
Author(s) -
KaungaNyirenda Simeon Newton,
Bull Stephen,
Lim Jun Jun,
Hasler KarlHeinz,
Fricke Jörg,
Larkins Eric C.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
iet optoelectronics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.379
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1751-8776
pISSN - 1751-8768
DOI - 10.1049/iet-opt.2013.0082
Subject(s) - laser beam quality , optics , materials science , laser , distributed bragg reflector , optoelectronics , brightness , reflector (photography) , beam (structure) , semiconductor laser theory , diode , laser beams , physics , light source
In this study, the authors examine some of the factors affecting the brightness and the beam quality of high‐power tapered lasers. The large volume resonators required to achieve high‐power, high‐brightness operation make the beam quality sensitive to carrier lensing and multimode operation. These cause bleaching of the regions outside the ridge waveguide. The beam quality in the conventional and the distributed Bragg reflector tapered lasers is examined in the absence of the self‐heating effects in order to investigate the impact of the carrier lensing effects. The influence of the front facet reflectivity and the taper angle on the beam quality is investigated. The beam quality was found to degrade with an increase in the front facet reflectivity and for larger taper angles in the conventional tapered lasers, especially at low ridge waveguide currents. Finally, the performance of conventional tapered lasers employing a beamspoiler was assessed. The beam quality was found to be comparable with that achieved in the DBR tapered lasers.