Pico- and nanosecond dynamics of the lateral emission of broad area distributed Bragg reflector lasers under high-current pulsed excitation

Abstract

Diode lasers generating optical pulses with high peak power and pulse lengths in the pico- and nanosecond ranges are key components for a broad range of applications such as free-space communication, metrology, material processing, spectroscopy and LiDAR (Light Detection, and Ranging), e.g., for automotive systems (autonomous driving) and object detection [1, 2, 3, 4]. For automotive systems short pulses (100 ps–10 ns) with high pulse powers, low wavelength shift with temperature and good beam quality are needed. A high power can be achieved with broad area lasers. However the near field emission typically is spatially and temporally inhomogeneous. The lateral dynamic behaviour of such lasers under short pulse high current excitation is not investigated in detail up to now. The aim of this contribution is to present detailed experimental and theoretical investigations of the dynamic behaviour of the emitted power and the optical spectrum in time range 100 ps–10 ns in dependence of the lateral position of the emission aperture (nearfield).