Room Temperature Continuous Wave Operation Of Gasb - Based Semiconductor Disk Laser Near 2 Mu M

The semiconductor epitaxial design and lasing characteristics of an optically barrier-pumped GaSb -based semiconductor disk laser (SDL) emitting at 2.0 mu m optimized for resonant optical barrier pumping around 1470 nm are presented. Compared to conventional barrier-pumped devices with pump wavelength of 980nm, the novel barrier-pumped device with the smaller quantum deficit reaches a significantly higher power efficiency, and thus a higher output power at a given pump power, due to the lesser internal heat generation. Using an intracavity SiC heat spreader, a cw output power in excess of 300 mW has been achieved at a heat sink temperature of +15 degrees C, and still more than 500 mW at +10 degrees C.