High-Power Diode Lasers: Fundamentals, Technology, Applications (Topics in Applied Physics, 78)

Methods of design and fabrication of high-power diode lasers using proven semiconductor technologies are described in this book. The latter include epitaxy and optical lithography, mounting on heat sinks, beam forming with micro-optics and coupling to optical fibers, and reliability testing. Direct applications of high-power diode lasers in materials processing and for pumping hitherto unknown solid-state laser systems are presented in a comprehensive fashion. Thus, this book is an invaluable source of information for all scientists and engineers designing laser systems and applying the laser as a reliable and economic tool in a multitude of environments.

Methods of design and fabrication of high-power diode lasers using proven semiconductor technologies are presented in a comprehensive fashion making this book an invaluable source of information for all scientists and engineers designing laser systems and applying the laser as a reliable and economic tool in a multitude of environments. It summarizes the prerequisites to set up state-of-the-art high-power diode-laser sources and how to use them in various applications. The available information, until now scattered worldwide in the scientific and technical literature, has been collected and compiled by the authors to give a complete overview of the principles of high-power diode lasers and design aspects for achieving high optical output power at high efficiency, low threshold current density, high reliability, and for reducing production costs. Special features are the development of high-brightness diode lasers for application in direct materials processing, technologies of alloying single lasers and laser bars to sophisticated heat sinks and direct applications of high-power diode-laser systems with coherent and incoherent beam combining and also new concepts for diode-pumped solid-state lasers such as the fiber laser and the disc laser which become feasible through diode pumping.