Invention:
This invention uses a strategic placement of the gain chips, cavity mirrors, and polarization elements to address the thermal management issues and eliminate or mitigate mode hopping issues. With the novel architecture, the lasers can be stabilized to provide mode-hop free operation with a narrow line-width of 10 MHz, thus improving the overall efficiency of such systems.
Background:
A major technical challenge in high-power VECSELs is thermal management. The heat dissipated in small volume/area of the semiconductor device must be removed with minimum temperature rise and can require a complex, costly and bulky solution. One approach to manage heat dissipation is to use multiple VECSEL devices in the laser resonator to achieve higher output powers, so that heat dissipation is distributed among multiple devices. However, such multi-device VECSEL configurations suffer from longitudinal mode hopping and standing wave problems. Mode hopping issues can also occur in a single-device VECSEL configuration, where the gain chip is placed at the cavity fold. The invention addresses the thermal management issues and eliminate or mitigate mode hopping issues.
Advantages:
- Good thermal management
- Mode-hopping mitigated
- Narrow line-width
- High power
Applications:
- Guide stars for telescopes
- Adaptive optics
- Optical pumping
- Satellite communications
Status: issued U.S. patent #11,962,127
