Investigation of the thermal properties of a laser-diode linear array on a silicon carbide heat sink

An investigation was made of the operating characteristics of a linear array of AlGaAs laser diodes indium-soldered to an SiC heat sink. The average output power was 14 W and the efficiency was ~25%. The thermal impedance of the system was 0.05 KW^–1. A comparison of the experimental results with heat flow fluctuations showed that, in spite of a thick solder layer, the system was capable of draining heat at an average rate twice that detected experimentally. The discrepancy between the experimental and theoretical results could be explained by structural imperfections of the solder layer, typical of the adopted method for bonding a linear diode array to a heat sink and to electrodes.