Uniform high power nine and 18 element individually addressable laser diode arrays

Abstract

Results from the CW operation of uniform high power nine and 18 element addressable semiconductor laser arrays, that are applicable to parallel data processing in optical storage, communication, and imaging systems, are presented. A nine element array on 150 μm centres capable of emitting greater than 150 mW/element and 1.15 W of total power at λ ≃ 854.4 nm is demonstrated. In addition, power exceeding 80 mW/element and 1 W total power is obtained from an 18 element array on 50 μm centres. Variations in operating current and wavelength are limited on ≤5% for the nine element array and ≤9% for the 18 element array.