The bandwidth of an optically pumped semiconductor laser (OPS) is determined by the bandwidth of the material gain, the bandwidth of the longitudinal confinement factor (LCF), and the bandwidth of the Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR). For a typical OPS structure at 1064nm, the bandwidth of the DBR is the largest among them. In this work, we demonstrate a tunable OPS structure with broadened material gain and LCF, so that the bandwidth of the OPS is close to the bandwidth of the DBR. The laser outputs more than 2W, tunable in a wavelength range of 1035 – 1100nm.
The most technologically mature optically pumped semiconductor lasers (OPSL) are based on InGaAs quantum wells (QW) for emission in the 900-1200 nm range. The low wavelength boundary is set by both the bandgap of InGaAs and the most common pump wavelength of 808 nm. To extend the wavelength coverage into 700 – 900 nm, a different QW system and a different pump wavelength are needed. In this work, we present the progress and result in the development of AlGaAs-based OPSL.
Optically pumped semiconductor lasers (OPSL) have been replacing legacy gas lasers and solid state lasers for over a decade, due to their superior properties such as compactness, high efficiency, low noise, wavelength scalability, and power scalability. It has wide applications in life sciences, medical therapeutics, light show, and other scientific researches. In this work, we present a gain model and couple it to the thermal management of high power OPSL.
Self-heating of Optically Pumped Semiconductor (OPS) chip has been identified as the major limiting factor of power scaling in OPS-based lasers in continuous wave (cw) mode. In this work, characterization of OPS lasers in short pulse (100 ns) and low duty cycle (1%) regime, where self-heating is negligible, as a function of the heat sink temperature is presented. This data, combined with a rigorous thermal model, allows us to predict OPS chip performance in new cooling configurations for power scaling.
Optically pumped semiconductor lasers (OPSL) offer the advantage of excellent beam quality, wavelength agility, and high power scaling capability. In this talk we will present our recent progress of high-power, 920nm OPSLs frequency doubled to 460nm for lightshow applications. Fundamental challenges and mitigations are revealed through electrical, optical, thermal, and mechanical modeling. Results also include beam quality enhancement in addressing the competition from diode lasers.
We present results from a survey of materials used for packaging semiconductor lasers, including Cu, CuW, BeO,
diamond composite and other advanced materials. We present the results of residual bonding stress from various solders
and consider the direct effects on wavelength and spectral width. We also provide data on the second order effects of
threshold current and slow axis divergence. Additionally, we consider the heat spreading through different materials for
a laser bar and present modeled and experimental data on the thermal performance. Finally, we consider the reliability
under on-off life-testing and thermal cycling tests.
The packaging of high power diode laser bars requires a high cooling efficiency and long-term stability. Due to the
increasing output power of the diode laser bars the cooling performance of the packaging becomes more important.
Nowadays micro channel heat sinks seem to be the most efficient cooling concept in regard to high power applications.
The active area of the p-side down mounted laser bar is located directly above the micro channels. In other applications
where conductive cooled heat sinks are used the bars are mounted on copper CS mount, CuW submount or high
performance materials.
All these packaging ideas use wire bonds or thin copper sheets as a n-contacts. The thermal advantage of these contacts
can be neglected.
N-contact cooling is typically used to achieve new records of optical output power in the labs.
These studies analyze the properties of an additional n-contact cooling. The cooling performance of a package cooled on
both sides can be improved by more than 20% when compared with typical wire bonds or metal sheets.
Different packaging styles with metal sheets, heat spreaders (expansion matched) and active n-side cooling are
investigated. The effect of n-side cooling with regards to the fill-factor and cavity length is analyzed also.
The first part of this paper approaches the topic theoretically. Simulations are carried out and show the advantages and
differences of different package styles in comparison to bar geometries variations. The second part of the studies
characterizes and analyses fabricated samples made out of copper in view of cooling performance, handling, and induced
stress. The results of different bar geometries and packaging styles are compared and guidelines for n-side cooling are
developed.
Thermo-mechanical stress occurring during the packaging process and during operation limits the reliability of high-power
diode laser bars. The stress is caused by the mismatch of the thermal expansion coefficients between the heat sink and laser bar material. A soft solder layer can partially reduce the stress by relaxation. A convenient approach for reducing the stress is the matching of the thermal expansion of the heat sink to the laser bar material. The disadvantage of most expansion-matched heat sinks is a higher thermal resistance so that the device temperature increases and the
lifetime decreases. For the development of thermal and strain optimized diode laser packages an analysis of both the thermal and strain distribution is reasonable. In this work the strain is analyzed by electroluminescence using the correlation between stress and the polarization properties of the laser bar radiation. This method allows a qualitative emitter resolved strain mapping along the slow-axis. Because of the correlation between temperature and wavelength a thermal analysis of mounted laser bars can be done by
an emitter resolved spectral mapping. Irregularities in the thermal contact between laser bar and heat sink such as defects
in the solder layer become visible by irregular emitter spectra.
The work shows examples for the optimization of the package. The analysis of the thermal and strain distribution shows the advantages and disadvantages of the particular approaches, like variations of solder thickness or expansion matched packages.
The field of applications for diode laser bars is growing continuously. The reasons for this are the growing width of
available wavelengths and the increasing optical output power. In parallel to this the requirements for packaging for the
high power diode laser bars increase and are more manifold. Expansion matched, non corrosive, non erosive, low
thermal resistance and high thermal conductivity are some of the keywords for the packaging in the near future.
Depending on the thermal power density, two different types of heat sinks are used: active and passive. The active heat
sinks can further be subdivided in micro- or macro-channel heat sinks.
The development of macro-channel heat sinks was necessary because of the limited lifetime of the common micro-channel
heatsink. The bigger channels reduce especially erosion and corrosion effects. By taking the increasing
resonator length of the laser bars into account the cooling performance of the macro-channel heatsink will be sufficient
for many applications. In cases of high thermal power densities there are still no alternatives to micro-channel heat
sinks. New material combinations shall minimize the erosion and corrosion effects.
New raw materials such as diamond composite materials with a higher thermal conductivity than copper and matched
thermal expansion will find their working field at first in the passively cooling of laser bars. The next generation of
active heat sinks will also be partly made out of the high performance materials. The point of time for this improvement
depends on machining behavior, availability and price of the raw material.
The lifetime of high-power diode lasers, which are cooled by standard copper heatsinks, is limited. The reasons are the aging of the indium solder normally employed as well as the mechanical stress caused by the mismatch between the copper heatsink (16 - 17ppm/K) and the GaAs diode laser bars (6 - 7.5 ppm/K). For micro - channel heatsinks corrosion and erosion of the micro channels limit the lifetime additionally. The different thermal behavior and the resulting stress cannot be compensated totally by the solder. Expansion matched heatsink materials like tungsten-copper or aluminum nitride reduce this stress. A further possible solution is a combination of copper and molybdenum layers, but all these materials have a high thermal resistance in common. For high-power electronic or low cost medical applications novel materials like copper/carbon compound, compound
diamond or high-conductivity ceramics were developed during recent years. Based on these novel materials, passively cooled heatsinks are designed, and thermal and mechanical simulations are performed to check their properties. The expansion of the heatsink and the induced mechanical stress between laser bar and heatsink are the main tasks for the simulations. A comparison of the simulation with experimental results for different material combinations illustrates the advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches. Together with the boundary conditions the ideal applications for packaging with these materials are defined. The goal of the development of passively-cooled expansion-matched heatsinks has to be a long-term reliability of several 10.000h and a thermal resistance below 1 K/W.
During the last few years high power diode laser arrays have become well established for direct material processing due to their high efficiency of more than 50%. But standard broad-area waveguide designs are susceptible to modal instabilities and filamentations resulting in low beam qualities. The beam quality increases by more than a factor of four by using tapered laser arrays, but so far they suffer from lower efficiencies. Therefore tapered lasers are mainly used today as single emitters in external resonator configurations. With increased output power and lifetime, they will be much more attractive for material processing and for pumping of fiber amplifiers.
High efficiency tapered mini bars emitting at a wavelength of 980 nm are developed, and in order to qualify the bars, the characteristics of single emitters and mini bars from the same wafer have been compared. The mini bars have a width of 6 mm with 12 emitters. The ridge waveguide tapered lasers consist of a 500 μm long ridge and a 2000 μm long tapered section.
The results show very similar behavior of the electro-optical characteristics and the beam quality for single emitters and bars. Due to different junction temperatures, different slope efficiencies were measured: 0.8 W/A for passively cooled mini bars and 1.0 W/A for actively cooled mini-bars and single emitters. The threshold current of 0.7 A per emitter is the same for single emitters and emitter arrays. Output powers of more than 50 W in continuous wave mode for a mini bar with standard packaging demonstrates the increased power of tapered laser bars.
During the last years high power diode lasers have become increasingly established for direct material processing. The advantages are the high efficiency (more than 50%) and long lifetime of more than 10.000h. An important factor believed to be responsible for the aging of diode lasers is the thermo-mechanical stress. High stress levels arise from the packaging process. The mismatch between the thermal expansion coefficient of the heat sink (typically copper 16.5x10-6 K-1) and the laserbar (GaAs 6.7x10-6 K-1) cause high mechanical stress. The change in length during the cooling process of a 10mm wide laserbar is more than 10μm. If a hard solder is used, the stress is much higher, because hard solder typically has a higher melting point and stress can not be reduced by relaxation.
Typically material with lower thermal expansion coefficient have a lower thermal conductivity than copper. This increases the thermal load of the laserbar, which decreases the life-time in this sense. The expansion-matching and the lower thermal conductivity of this material are working against each other. In order to find a good compromise, different active cooled expansion matched heat sinks are simulated. Very promising heat sinks have been fabricated and characterized. Also the solder selection has influence on the long term stability. A very soft solder is more critical in terms of long term stability. A higher diffusion takes place, so that the properties of the solder change during the lifetime of the diode-laser. Hard solder, especially AuSn, are well tested solders with a very high long term stability. (No changes of the intermetallic structure even at higher temperature.) The disadvantage of the hard solder is the incapability to reduce the mechanical stress through relaxation. Different solders are being used and investigated.
In order to optimize the soldering process of laserbars onto heatsinks with Indium solder, several investigations have been made. First the growth of Indium oxide film is examined.
With this knowledge four different reduction materials are selected. Formic acid as a wet chemical reduction, a plasma activated Hydrogen/Argon gas, a gas enriched with formic acid, and a protective layer of Gold were investigated and compared for an optimized reduction of the oxide film of the Indium solder.
A cross section of the solder interface after the soldering process is made in order to see the distribution of the metals. High diffusion of the solder with its contact partners is a sign of a good connection. Enough pure Indium has to be available after the soldering process in order to use its creek properties to reduce the mechanical stress in the laserbar.
Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a new in vivo imaging device in ophthalmology. We investigated the diagnostic potentials of a slitlamp-adapted OCT in the examination of not only the posterior but also the anterior segment in vivo. Patients were examined with a new prototype of a slitlamp- adapted OCT (Fa.Schwind, D-Kleinostheim) in the anterior and posterior segment using 100 - 200 axial scans with 50 Hz scan frequency. The scan length is variable up to 7.5 mm. The software allows to evaluate the images in gray scale or false color. By the slitlamp-adapted OCT all anatomic structures and morphological changes anterior to the attenuating iris pigment epithelium including the anterior chamber angle can be demonstrated and measured precisely. Within the pupillary opening OCT-imaging of cataract, secondary cataract formation as well as the anterior vitreous can be performed. The slitlamp-adapted OCT also allows direct biomicroscopic control of the measured area in examinations of the posterior segment. The slitlamp-adapted OCT provides a new and helpful diagnostic tool, which allows a precise examination of the anterior and posterior segment of the eye. The advantage of this new method lies in the combination of the familiar examination technique and the simultaneous slitlamp view, which provides an exact position control. It is possible to do pachymetric studies of the cornea after photorefractive and phototherapeutic therapy. Of importance is the objective measurement of the chamber angle, which may improve pre- and postoperative evaluation and allow a better follow up documentation of glaucoma patients.
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