FUNDAMENTAL MODE-OPERATION OF HIGH-POWER INGAAS/GAAS/ALGAAS LASER ARRAYS

Abstract

A new ridge waveguide laser array with stable fundamental mode operation has been fabricated. By introducing absorption regions in all the laser stripes except for the central one, the electric field distribution of the laser arrays and the modal gains of the array supermodes are changed, resulting in fundamental mode operation. The threshold current of an array with five elements is typically 40 mA and the maximum output power is higher than 150 mW. The single-lobed far-field pattern centered at 0-degrees with full width at half maximum of 2-degrees is obtained at 1.5 times of the threshold current (I(th)).