1.1-W CONTINUOUS-WAVE 1480-NM SEMICONDUCTOR-LASERS WITH DISTRIBUTED ELECTRODES FOR MODE SHAPING

Diffraction-limited high-power devices may suffer from self-focusing e ffects due to nonuniform gain saturation. In this letter, we propose t he concept of the distributed electrode, which allows one to improve t he modal behavior of these lasers and to reduce spatial-hole burning e ffects by preferentially localizing current injection in the center of the structure, therefore shaping the optical mode. Utilizing this con cept, we have realized unstable cavity lasers exhibiting single-lobe f ar-field patterns. we report the first realization of flared unstable cavity lasers emitting at 1480 nn with maximum output powers up to 1.1 -W continuous-wave and external efficiencies as high as 0.45 W/A.