Thermal Behavior and Power Scaling Potential of Membrane External-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers (MECSELs)

Phung, Hoy-My; Tatar-Mathes, Philipp; Rogers, Aaron; Rajala, Patrik; Ranta, Sanna; Kahle, Hermann; Guina, Mircea

doi:10.1109/jqe.2022.3147482

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Accordingly, the thermal resistance of the 10×4 AlGaInP-MECSEL can be calculated to R th = (4.60 ± 0.30) K W . This value is very similar to previously calculated thermal resistances 34 where SiC heat spreaders were used.…”

Section: Thermal Resistancesupporting

confidence: 89%

Membrane external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (MECSELs) optimized for double-side-pumping: a first fundamental single-side pumping characterization

Mikitta,

Cutuk,

Jetter

et al. 2024

Vertical External Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VECSELs) XIII

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Membrane external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (MECSELs) are a new kind of vertically-emitting semiconductor laser with enormous potential and versatility for tailoring the laser parameters. Part of their benefits is related to the fact that they do not need to employ integrated distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs), which are known to hamper the heat transfer and limit wavelength versatility via strain and band-gap engineering constraints. Furthermore, the substrate on which the active region is grown on is removed and the resulting thin active region membrane is sandwiched between transparent intra cavity (IC) heat spreaders for improved thermal management. Initial characterization of room temperature operation of a new red-emitting AlGaInPbased structure design containing 40 quantum wells (QWs) will be presented. Further, the main aspects of the design of active region membranes will be reviewed with respect to double-side pumping possibilities enabled by the absence of a DBR and the substrate. The comparably high cavity losses show future potential of a properly double-side pumped gain structure.

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Section: Thermal Resistancesupporting

confidence: 89%

Membrane external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (MECSELs) optimized for double-side-pumping: a first fundamental single-side pumping characterization

Mikitta,

Cutuk,

Jetter

et al. 2024

Vertical External Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VECSELs) XIII

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“…The MECSEL (Membrane External Cavity Surface Emitting Laser) [7], [8] further simplifies optically pumped semiconductor lasers with removing the DBR and leaving only a thin gain membrane to support operation wavelength spanning from 600 nm to 1.75 µm [7], [9] using both the GaAs and InP material system. Additionally it addresses the thermal [10] and refractive-indexcontrast limitations, like in InP-based DBRs, which are present in traditional VECSEL configurations [11], and also supports record-wide wavelength tunability [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

2-μm 1.5-W Optically Pumped Semiconductor Membrane Laser

Schuchter,

Huwyler,

Golling

et al. 2024

IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.

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We introduce the first diode-pumped GaSb-based semiconductor membrane laser with a continuous wave (cw) output power of 1.5 W at a center wavelength of 2.08 µm with an optical-to-optical efficiency of 11.7 % and thermal resistance of 0.74 K/W. It features a broad tunability over 117 nm, achieved using a 3-mm birefringent quartz crystal in Brewster configuration. This tuning range is currently limited by the dielectric cavity mirrors. The laser beam quality, indicated by an M 2 < 1.45, remains excellent across all output powers. Unlike diodepumped ion-doped solid-state lasers, this semiconductor laser offers full wavelength flexibility through InGaSb quantum well (QW) bandgap engineering in the short-wave-infrared (SWIR) regime. The 1.2-µm thick membrane gain chip with 12 InGaSb QWs is directly bonded on a silicon carbide heatspreader. This type of laser is also referred to as a MECSEL (Membrane External Cavity Surface Emitting Laser) which can support high-power operation in the SWIR regime due to their excellent heat dissipation. We developed new processing techniques to showcase the promising results for MECSEL in the GaSb-based material system.

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“…On the same line, the ability of MECSELs to achieve a broader wavelength tunability [11] and to implement a design optimized towards mode-locking operation [12] has been also demonstrated. In terms of thermal management, the expected benefits of using two heat-spreaders [5], have been recently experimentally proven to be typically larger than a factor of two [13] when using two instead of one single heat-spreader. Consequently, the double heat-spreader approach has become a standard in MECSELs [14], [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Non-Resonant Gain Structure Design in Membrane External-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers

Tatar-Mathes

Phung

Rogers

et al. 2023

IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.

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The operation of a semiconductor membrane external-cavity surface-emitting laser (MECSEL) employing a gain membrane with a cavity design, which is non-resonant regarding the two semiconductor -heat-spreader interfaces, is presented. The MECSEL delivers watt-level output power, in line with state-of-the-art results. The study provides new evidence that the design criteria of a MECSEL gain region are significantly relaxed compared to active regions employing distributed Bragg reflectors, for which the field distribution is set by the Bragg condition leading to tight tolerances for positioning of the emitting quantum structures. The study has relevance especially for the development of mode-locked MECSELs by minimizing the impact of defective Fabry-Pérot micro-cavity effects due to reflections between the semiconductor gain structure and the two heat-spreader elements placed on each side of the semiconductor membrane.

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Thermal Behavior and Power Scaling Potential of Membrane External-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers (MECSELs)

Cited by 7 publications

References 31 publications

Membrane external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (MECSELs) optimized for double-side-pumping: a first fundamental single-side pumping characterization

Membrane external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (MECSELs) optimized for double-side-pumping: a first fundamental single-side pumping characterization

2-μm 1.5-W Optically Pumped Semiconductor Membrane Laser

Effect of Non-Resonant Gain Structure Design in Membrane External-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers

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