Monolithic 2D-VCSEL array with > 2W CW and > 5W pulsed output power - Electronics Letters

The ability to fabricate monolithic two-dimensional (2D) diode laser arrays is a key step towards making high-power lasers at low cost, because the manufacture of such laser arrays eliminates labour-intensive fabrication and packaging [ 11. The surface-normal topology of the vertical cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) makes it ideally suited to the formation of 2D arrays for high power applications such as printing, materials processing and the pumping of solid state lasers. There are two ways to increase the output power of VCSEL arrays: increase the aperture diameter of each einitter [2], or increase the total number of emitters packaged in the arrays. Previous attempts to achieve scalable high power from VCSEL arrays have been limited by difficulties in thermal management and non-uniformity between elements of the array. In this Letter, we report the performance of several VCSEL arrays. By active cooling of the laser arrays, we were able to repeatedly generate > 2W CW and >5W pulsed output power at 940nm. These are highest CW and pulsed output powers achieved from a monolithic VCSEL array to date. To the best of our knowledge, the highest reported CW output power from a monolithic VCSEL structure was -700mW, while the highest reported pulsed output was 1.SW.