Optically pumped semiconductor disk lasers are an important class of solid state lasers. Despite all their advantages, however, they suffer from heat incorporation into the active region caused by the excess energy of the pump photons. To overcome the limits of common methods in thermal management, we realized in a joint collaboration between the IHFG and the IFSW the semiconductor membrane external-cavity surface-emitting laser (MECSEL) consisting of a diamond heat spreader sandwiched active region design without a monolithically integrated distributed Bragg reflector (DBR). This diamond-sandwich approach improves the heat dissipation out of the active region and makes generally low-heat conductive DBRs obsolete. In an AlGaInP-based system, we demonstrate 595 mW output power at a wavelength of 657 nm and heatsink temperature of 10°C. The MECSEL enables a variety of new material combinations for new laser wavelengths and further potential for power scaling.
Publication: Semiconductor membrane external-cavity surface-emitting laser (MECSEL)
Hermann Kahle, Cherry May N. Mateo, Uwe Brauch, Philipp Tatar-Mathes, Roman Bek, Michael Jetter, Thomas Graf, and Peter Michler 
Optica 3(12), 1506-1512 (2016)
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Contact person: Dr. M. Jetter