Generation of spectrally stable continuous-wave emission and ns pulses with a peak power of 4 W using a distributed Bragg reflector laser and a ridge-waveguide power amplifier

• Published in: Optics express Vol. 22; no. 20; pp. 23980 - 23989
• Main Authors: Klehr, A, Wenzel, H, Fricke, J, Bugge, F, Erbert, G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 06-10-2014
• ISSN: 1094-4087; 1094-4087
• DOI: 10.1364/OE.22.023980

We have developed a diode-laser based master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) light source which emits high-power spectrally stabilized and nearly-diffraction limited optical pulses in the nanoseconds range as required by many applications. The MOPA consists of a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser as master oscillator driven by a constant current and a ridge waveguide power amplifier (PA) which can be driven by a constant current (DC) or by rectangular current pulses with a width of 5 ns at a repetition frequency of 200 kHz. Under pulsed operation the amplifier acts as an optical gate, converting the CW input beam emitted by the DBR laser into a train of short amplified optical pulses. With this experimental MOPA arrangement no relaxation oscillations occur. A continuous wave power of 1 W under DC injection and a pulse power of 4 W under pulsed operation are reached. For both operational modes the optical spectrum of the emission of the amplifier exhibits a peak at a constant wavelength of 973.5 nm with a spectral width < 10 pm.