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The optically pumped semiconductor membrane external-cavity surface-emitting laser (MECSEL) - a concept based on a diamond-sandwiched active region

MetadataDetails
Publication Date2017-02-27
JournalProceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE
AuthorsHermann Kahle, Cherry May N. Mateo, U. Brauch, Roman Bek, Michael Jetter
InstitutionsUniversity of Stuttgart
Citations7

Semiconductor disk lasers with all their advantages<sup>1</sup> became an important stand-alone class of solid-state lasers during the last years. However, these systems suffer from heat incorporation into the active region caused by the excess energy of the pump photons. To overcome this limitation we realized the semiconductor membrane external-cavity surface-emitting laser as a diamond heat spreader sandwiched active region design. A detailed process description towards the MECSEL<sup>2</sup> approach is given as well as fundamental performance values. Furthermore, parasitic lateral lasing effects are discovered and investigated. Nevertheless, the MECSEL approach indicates enormous potential to revolutionize the semiconductor based disk lasers regarding available output powers at room temperature and material combinations.