Reduced facet temperature in semiconductor lasers using electrically pumped windows

Abstract

The self-heating of semiconductor lasers contributes directly to facet heating and consequently to the critical temperature for catastrophic optical mirror damage (COMD) but the existing facet engineering methods do not address this issue. Targeting this problem, we report experimental and modeling results that demonstrate a new method achieving facet temperatures significantly lower than the laser cavity temperature in GaAs-based high-power semiconductor lasers by using electrically isolated and pumped windows. Owing to monolithic integration, the method does not introduce any penalty on the efficiency and output power of the laser. Thermal modeling results show that the laser output facet can be almost totally isolated from heat generated in the laser cavity and near cold-cavity facet temperatures are possible. The method can be applied to single emitters, laser bars, and monolithically integrated lasers in photonic integrated circuits to improve their reliability and operating performance.