We report first experimental results on a highpower pulsed semiconductor laser operating in the eye-safe spectral range (wavelength around 1.5 µm) with an asymmetric waveguide structure. The laser has a bulk active layer positioned very close to the p-cladding in order to eliminate current-induced nonuniform carrier accumulation in the p-side of the waveguide and the associated carrier losses. Moderate doping of the n-side of the waveguide is used to strongly suppress nonuniform carrier accumulation within this part of the waveguide. Highly p-doped InP p-cladding facilitates low series resistance. An as-cleaved sample with a stripe width of 90 µm exhibits an output power of about 18 W at a pumping current amplitude of 80 A. Theoretical calculations, validated by comparison to experiment, suggest that the performance of lasers of this type can be improved further by optimization of the waveguide thickness and doping as well as improvement of injection efficiency.

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The characteristics and the fabrication of a 1.9 μm superluminescent diode utilizing a cavity suppression element are reported. The strong suppression of reflections allows the device to reach high gain without any sign of lasing modes. The high gain enables strong amplified spontaneous emission and output power up to 60 mW in a single transverse mode. At high gain, the spectrum is centered around 1.9 μm and the full width at half maximum is as large as 60 nm. The power and spectral characteristics pave the way for demonstrating compact and efficient light sources for spectroscopy. In particular, the light source meets requirements for coupling to silicon waveguides and fills a need for leveraging to mid-IR applications photonics integration circuit concepts exploiting hybrid integration to silicon technology.

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We report a single-mode 1180 nm distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser diode with a high output power of 340 mW. For the fabrication, we employed novel nanoimprint lithography that ensures cost-effective, large-area, conformal patterning and does not require regrowth. The output characteristics exhibited outstanding temperature insensitivity with a power drop of only 30% for an increase of the mount temperature from 20°C to 80°C. The high temperature stability was achieved by using GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells (QWs), which exhibit improved carrier confinement compared to standard InGaAs/GaAs QWs. The corresponding characteristic temperatures were T₀=110  K and T₁=160  K. Moreover, we used a large detuning between the peak wavelength of the material gain at room temperature and the lasing wavelength determined by the DBR. In addition to good temperature characteristics, GaInNAs/GaAs QWs exhibit relatively low lattice strain with direct impact on improving the lifetime of laser diodes at this challenging wavelength range. The single-mode laser emission could be tuned by changing the mount temperature (0.1 nm/°C) or the drive current (0.5 pm/mA). The laser showed no degradation in a room-temperature lifetime test at 900 mA drive current. These compact and efficient 1180 nm laser diodes are instrumental for the development of compact frequency-doubled yellow-orange lasers, which have important applications in medicine and spectroscopy.