Experimental studies of 1.5–1.6 μm high-power asymmetric-waveguide multimode lasers

The current–voltage, light–current, and spectral characteristics of high-power multimode semiconductor lasers emitting at wavelengths of 1.5–1.6 μm are studied experimentally. It is shown that the cw output power of a C-mount laser with a cavity length of 2.6 mm and a mesa-stripe contact width of 100 μm exceeds 4 W at a pump power of 15 A. The output power in a pulsed regime amounts to 20 W at a pulse duration of 100 ns, a pulse repetition rate of 5 kHz, and a pump current no higher than 80 A. The dependences of the laser wavelength and spectral width on the pump current are presented. The current–voltage and light–current characteristics, as well as the characteristic temperatures of the lasers, are calculated.