X. Guan

High reliability and high performance of 9xx-nm single emitter laser diodes

Improved performance and reliability of 9xx nm single emitter laser diodes are presented. To date, over 15,000 hours of accelerated multi-cell lifetest reliability data has been collected, with drive currents from 14A to 18A and junction temperatures ranging from 60°C to 110°C. Out of 208 devices, 14 failures have been observed so far. Using established accelerated lifetest analysis techniques, the effects of temperature and power acceleration are assessed. The Mean Time to Failure (MTTF) is determined to be >30 years, for use condition 10W and junction temperature 353K (80°C), with 90% statistical confidence.

High reliability of high power and high brightness diode lasers

We report on continued progress in the development of high power and high brightness single emitter laser diodes from 790 nm to 980 nm for reliable use in industrial and pumping applications. High performance has been demonstrated in nLIGHT’s diode laser technology in this spectral range with corresponding peak electrical-to-optical power conversion efficiency of ~65%. These pumps have been incorporated into nLIGHT’s fiber-coupled pump module, elementTM. We report the latest updates on performance and reliability of chips and fiber-coupled modules. This paper also includes a new chip design with significantly narrower slow-axis divergence which enables further improved reliable power and brightness. Preliminary reliability assessment data for these devices will be presented here as well.

Reliability of high power/brightness diode lasers emitting from 790 to 980 nm

This paper presents recent progress in the development of high power single emitter laser diodes from 790 nm to 980 nm for reliable use in industrial and pumping applications. High performance has been demonstrated on diode lasers from 790 nm to 980 nm, with corresponding peak efficiency ~65%. Reliability has been fully demonstrated on high power diode lasers of 3.8 mm laser cavity at 3 major wavelengths. We report on the correlation between photon-energy (wavelength) and device failure modes (reliability). A newly released laser design demonstrates diode lasers with 5.0 mm laser cavity at 915-980 nm and 790 nm, with efficiency that matches the values achieved with 3.8 mm cavity length. 915-980 nm single emitters with 5.0 mm laser cavity were especially designed for high power and high brightness applications and can be reliably operated at 12 W to 18 W. These pumps have been incorporated into nLIGHT’s newly developed fiber coupled pump module, elementTM. Ongoing highly accelerated diode life-tests have accumulated over 200,000 raw device hours, with extremely low failure rate observed to date. High reliability has also been demonstrated from multiple accelerated module-level lifetests.

High Performance Diode Lasers Emitting at 780-820 nm

High power 780-820 nm diode lasers have been developed for pumping and material processing systems. This paper presents recent progress in the development of such devices for use in high performance industrial applications. A newly released laser design in this wavelength range demonstrates thermally limited >25W CW power without catastrophic optical mirror damage (COMD), with peak wallplug efficiency ~65%. Ongoing accelerated lifetesting projects a time to 5% failure of ~10 years at 5 and 8 W operating powers for 95 and 200 μm emitter widths, respectively. Preliminary results indicate the presence and competition of a random and wear-out failure mode. Fiber-coupled modules based on arrays of these devices support >100W reliable operation, with a high 56% peak efficiency (ex-fiber) and improved brightness/reliability.

High efficiency kW-class QCW 88x nm diode laser bars

We present results of kW-class diode laser bars with optimized fill factors, cavity lengths, and facet reflectivity that demonstrated electrical-to-optical efficiency of 70% and operation of over 100 million shots in QCW mode.

High-temperature diode laser pumps for low SWaP directed energy lasers (Conference Presentation)

Kilowatt-class fiber lasers and amplifiers are becoming increasingly important building blocks for power-scaling laser systems in various architectures for directed energy applications. Currently, state-of-the-art Yb-doped fiber lasers operating near 1060 nm operate with optical-to-optical power-conversion efficiency of about 66%. State-of-the-art fiber-coupled pump diodes near 975 nm operate with about 50% electrical-to-fiber-coupled optical power conversion efficiency at 25C heatsink temperature. Therefore, the total system electrical-to-optical power conversion efficiency is about 33%. As a result, a 50-kW fiber laser will generate 75 kW of heat at the pump module and 25 kW at the fiber laser module with a total waste heat of 100 kW. It is evident that three times as much waste heat is generated at the pump module. While improving the efficiency of the diodes primarily reduces the input power requirement, increasing the operating temperature primarily reduces the size and weight for thermal management systems. We will discuss improvement in diode laser design, thermal resistance of the package as well as improvement in fiber-coupled optical-to-optical efficiency to achieve high efficiency at higher operating temperature. These factors have a far-reaching implication in terms of significantly improving the overall SWAP requirements thus enabling DEW-class fiber lasers on airborne and other platforms.

High-temperature diode laser pumps for directed energy fiber lasers (Conference Presentation)

Kilowatt-class fiber lasers and amplifiers are becoming increasingly important building blocks for power-scaling laser systems in various different architectures for directed energy applications. Currently, state-of-the-art Yb-doped fiber lasers operating near 1060 nm operate with optical-to-optical power-conversion efficiency of about 66%. State-of-the-art fiber-coupled pump diodes near 975 nm operate with about 50% electrical-to-fiber-coupled optical power conversion efficiency at 25C heatsink temperature. Therefore, the total system electrical-to-optical power conversion efficiency is about 33%. As a result, a 50-kW fiber laser will generate 75 kW of heat at the pump module and 25 kW at the fiber laser module with a total waste heat of 100 kW. It is evident that three times as much waste heat is generated at the pump module. While improving the efficiency of the diodes primarily reduces the input power requirement, increasing the operating temperature primarily reduces the size and weight for thermal management systems. We will discuss improvement in diode laser design, thermal resistance of the package as well as improvement in fiber-coupled optical-to-optical efficiency to achieve high efficiency at higher operating temperature. All of these factors have a far-reaching implication in terms of significantly improving the overall SWAP requirements thus enabling DEW-class fiber lasers on airborne and other platforms.

Continued improvement in reduced-mode (REM) diodes enable 272 W from 105 μm 0.15 NA beam

High-power, high-brightness diode lasers from 8xx nm to 9xx nm have been pursued in many applications including fiber laser pumping, materials processing, solid-state laser pumping, and consumer electronics manufacturing. In particular, 915 nm - 976 nm diodes are of interest as diode pumps for the kilowatt CW fiber lasers. Thus, there have been many technical efforts on driving the diode lasers to have both high power and high brightness to achieve high-performance and reduced manufacturing costs. This paper presents our continued progress in the development of high brightness fiber-coupled product platform, elementTM. In the past decade, the amount of power coupled into a single 105 μm and 0.15 NA fiber has increased by over a factor of ten through improved diode laser brilliance and the development of techniques for efficiently coupling multiple emitters into a single fiber. In this paper, we demonstrate the further brightness improvement and power-scaling enabled by both the rise in chip brightness/power and the increase in number of chips coupled into a given numerical aperture. We report a new x-REM design with brightness as high as 4.3 W/mm-mrad at a BPP of 3 mm-mrad. We also report the record 272W from a 2×9 elementTM with 105 μm/0.15 NA beam using x-REM diodes and a new product introduction at 200W output power from 105 μm/0.15 NA beam at 915 nm.

Reduced-mode (REM) diodes enable high brightness fiber-coupled modules

There is an increasing demand for high-power, high-brightness diode lasers from 8xx nm to 9xx nm for applications such as fiber laser pumping, materials processing, solid-state laser pumping, and consumer electronics manufacturing. The kilowatt CW fiber laser pumping (915 nm - 976 nm), in particular, requires the diode lasers to have both high power and high brightness in order to achieve high-performance and reduced manufacturing costs. This paper presents continued progress in the development of high brightness fiber-coupled product platform, elementTM. Further brightness improvement and power-scaling have been enabled by both the rise in chip brightness as well as the increase in number of chips used to couple into a given numerical aperture. We have developed a new generation of high power broad area laser known as reduced-mode diode (REM-diode) which suppresses many of the higher order modes in the slow axis and reduces divergence up to two times at the same operating conditions. To date, we have achieved slow-axis brightness as high as 4.3 W/mm-mrad for devices with thermal resistance of ~2.5 C/W. As a result, we have achieved >75 watts from a 1×6 elementTMin the 9xx nm spectral range; and 177 watts of peak power from a 2×6 elementTM. We have also improved our optics for fiber-coupling which accommodates 7 emitters per polarization in the same numerical aperture. Using this configuration, we project 200 watts of peak power from a 2×7 elementTM with a reliable product at 176 W of power from 105 μm and 0.15 NA fiber. REM-diodes can also be wavelength stabilized using VBGs. The reliability of REM-diodes are equal or better than broad area lasers (BALs). We present current status on ongoing reliability assessment of chip-on-submount.

High-brightness diodes and fiber-coupled modules

We report on continued progress in nLIGHT’s high power and high efficiency single emitter laser diodes from 915 nm to 980 nm range used for industrial and pumping applications. High performance has been demonstrated in nLIGHT’s diode laser technology in this spectral range with peak electrical-to-optical power conversion efficiency of ~65%. These diodes have been incorporated into nLIGHT’s fiber-coupled pump module, elementTM. We have reduced the slow-axis divergence of our brightest diodes by a half at the same operating power. This results primarily from suppression of higher-order lateral modes leading to lower beam-parameter-product at a given power compared to conventional broad area lasers. We have device designs that produce slow axis brightness of up to 4.3 W/mm-mrad which is 48% higher compared to our brightest broad area laser. This paper presents nLIGHT’s most recent improvement in slow-axis brightness resulting from reduced number of allowed modes in the slow-axis in a new broad area laser architecture called reduced-mode diodes (REM-diodes). We will detail the resulting power and brightness improvement along with preliminary reliability assessment of these diodes.