High power 980nm laser arrays with nonabsorbing facets

In this letter we report a novel 980nm semiconductor laser array structure with nonabsorbing facets to avoid the COMD on facets. The 980nm laser wafers are grown by MBE. Using quantum-well intermixing, we have fabricated nonabsorbing mirrors on the laser array's facets to resist COMD. The quantum intermixing process involves the deposition of a thin film (200nm) of sputtered SiO2 and a subsequent high temperature anneal (680-760 degreesC). The cm bars are cleaved to lengths of 1mm and their rear and front nonabsorbing facets are coated respectively with high and low reflectivity dielectric film by electron-beam. The devices are bonded p-side up onto copper heatsinks using indium solder and mounted on a water-cooled stage which is held at 18 degreesC for all experiments. The emission wavelength of the laser arrays is 980nm. Continuous wave (CW) output power of 8 W has been achieved.