Passively cooled diode lasers in the cw power range of 120 to 200W

Improvements of laser diode bar efficiency and mounting technology have boosted output powers of passively cooled diode lasers beyond the 100W cw limit. After an introduction about reliablity statements and reliability assessment, the performance increase by technology improvements is documented in current-step failure discrimination tests. Electro-optical parameters of improved diode lasers are subsequently presented in detail as well as the results of lifetime tests at different powers and in different operation modes - steady-state and repetitive/intermittent (hard pulse) cw operation.