Astigmatism-free high-brightness 1060 nm edge-emitting lasers with narrow circular beam profile.

Abstract

1060 nm high-brightness vertical broad-area edge-emitting lasers providing anastigmatic high optical power into a narrow circular beam profile are demonstrated. Ridge-waveguide (RW) lasers yield record 2.2 W single-transverse mode power in the 1060-nm wavelength range under continuous-wave (cw) operation at room temperature with excellent beam quality factor M2 ≤ 2. Independent of operating current the astigmatism is only 2.5 µm. 3 mm long broad-area (BA) lasers produce a θvert as narrow as 9° full width at half maximum, which agrees well with our simulation results, being insensitive to drive current. 5 mm long BA lasers deliver highest ever reported cw 12 W multimode output power among lasers showing θvert <10° in the 1060-nm wavelength range. The emitted laser beams from both RW and BA lasers show a perfect circular shape with ≤10° divergence angle at record 2.1 W and 4.2 W cw-mode output power, respectively.