Design and development of high power semiconductor lasers

High power semiconductor lasers find continually increasing applications both as direct sources of quasi-coherent light beams and as optical pumps for solid state lasers. In the paper we present some selected results attained in the course of the work on development of 808 nm, high power broad-contact SCH lasers with a ridge-waveguide structure. The lasers were fabricated from MOCVD grown AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures that comprised either single- (SQW) or multi-(MQW) quantum wells. Accordingly, they were mounted in form of single chips and 10 mm long bars on copper heat sinks. Selected topics related to laser fabrication, as well as some properties of the produced devices are discussed. (author)