Quenching of lasing in high power semiconductor laser

Abstract

Emission characteristics of high-power semiconductor lasers with a mesa-stripe design based on heterostructures with separate confinement are studied. It is shown that, in high-power semiconductor lasers with a mesa-stripe design, divergence of emission increases with the pump current as a result of generation of high order lateral optical modes. It is demonstrated that scattered radiation of high order lateral optical modes affects the transparency of passive regions outside the mesa stripe that forms a waveguide of the Fabry-Perot resonator. It is established that the transparency of passive regions results in fulfillment of threshold conditions for the closed optical mode in the semiconductor laser’s chip. As a result of generation of the closed optical mode in a cavity formed by four cleaved faces quenching of lasing modes in the mesa-stripe waveguide of the Fabry-Perot resonator occurs.