Reliability of high power/brightness diode lasers emitting from 790 to 980 nm

Abstract

This paper presents recent progress in the development of high power single emitter laser diodes from 790 nm to 980 nm for reliable use in industrial and pumping applications. High performance has been demonstrated on diode lasers from 790 nm to 980 nm, with corresponding peak efficiency ~65%. Reliability has been fully demonstrated on high power diode lasers of 3.8 mm laser cavity at 3 major wavelengths. We report on the correlation between photon-energy (wavelength) and device failure modes (reliability). A newly released laser design demonstrates diode lasers with 5.0 mm laser cavity at 915-980 nm and 790 nm, with efficiency that matches the values achieved with 3.8 mm cavity length. 915-980 nm single emitters with 5.0 mm laser cavity were especially designed for high power and high brightness applications and can be reliably operated at 12 W to 18 W. These pumps have been incorporated into nLIGHT’s newly developed fiber coupled pump module, element^TM. Ongoing highly accelerated diode life-tests have accumulated over 200,000 raw device hours, with extremely low failure rate observed to date. High reliability has also been demonstrated from multiple accelerated module-level lifetests.