Abstract

Semiconductor laser technology has been advancing rapidly over the past several years. Recently, 12.5-W cw from laser diode 1-cm linear arrays have been demonstrated,¹ while 8-W cw has been obtained from a 20-emitter 200-μm wide lasing aperture.² Similarly, a double-ended power conversion efficiency of 57%³ and a single-ended efficiency of 54%⁴ have been achieved. Twodimensional hybrid stacked arrays emitting >3 kW of quasi-cw power⁵ and monolithic 2-D arrays demonstrating coherent summing of beams from multiple devices are now a reality.⁶

© 1988 Optical Society of America