High-efficiency high-power semiconductor disc laser

High efficiency, high power and excellent beam quality has been achieved in optically-pumped semiconductor disc lasers (OPS-disc laser) emitting at 1000nm. Minimizing the thermal resistance between active region and heat-sink, more than 5.5W of continuous wave (cw) output has been obtained at room-temperature. Even more remarkable, the laser characteristics corresponding to this power display differential efficiencies of better than 50% and optical conversion efficiencies of better than 40%. This combination of high power and high efficiency represents the best reported values so far. As such, a highly efficient beam converter has been realized, transforming low-brightness optical pump power into high-brightness laser emission.