Abstract

Picosecond optical pulse generation in diode laser arrays has so far been reported predominantly for mode-locked operation, where stable picosecond pulse generation with interstripe pulse locking is achieved after tens of round trips [1], To overcome the inherent repetition rate restrictions for mode-locked diode lasers, and allow pulse generation on demand, much work has focused on the Q-switched operation of diode lasers where the pulse is formed on a round trip time-scale. For arrays however, care must be taken to ensure that the filaments in the different stripes are coupled strongly enough to ensure low jitter very short pulse generation. Only passive Q-switching has so far been reported for diode laser arrays, where 120ps duration pulses were generated with unspecified powers at bias-dependent Gigahertz rates, in ion implanted GaAs lasers [2], In this work an array of five Bow-Tie lasers is Q-switched to generate 13ps duration pulses with 10W peak power, the short pulse duration indicating a high coupling strength between the stripes during the Q-switched pulse.

© 1996 Optical Society of America