Abstract

Multiple-stripe lasers are very promising sources of high-power high-efficiency monochromatic optical energy. Lasers with ten stripes have been reported to emit powers in excess of 800 mW cw.¹ These lasers have demonstrated their usefulness in pumping neodymium:yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG)^2,3 lasers with electrical-optical conversion efficiencies of 8%.³ Pulsed laser diodes can operate at considerably higher power levels provided that the pulse width is sufficiently short (< 1 μs), and the duty cycle is low. In this regime the maximum peak power decreases inversely as the square root of the pulse width.⁴ For longer pulse widths, the maximum power flattens out and approaches the cw value.

© 1986 Optical Society of America