New diode lasers with leaking emission in an optical cavity

A new type of a wide-aperture, high-power and efficient semiconductor laser with emission leaking from an active region and involved in lasing is proposed. The principle of its operation is described. Single-mode semiconductor lasers with output apertures at the optical facet of 5 × 6 μm, 7 × 7.5 μm, and 10 × 10 μm and diffraction-limited divergence angles of emission from 6.9 to 12° in the vertical plane and from 3.3 to 7.7° in the horizontal plane are created for the first time. A single-mode cw output power of 0.5 W is obtained at 980 nm in a single-frequency regime with diffraction-limited divergence angles in the horizontal and vertical planes equal to 5.7° and 12.3°, respectively. In the multimode regime, the output powers of 1.3 and 3.0 W were obtained with small divergence angles for ridge widths of 10 and 50 μm, respectively.