New materials for diode laser pumping of solid-state lasers

The authors review recent progress in the development of new materials for III-V semiconductor diode lasers useful for pumping solid-state lasers. All of the diode lasers discussed are grown on GaAs substrates. Particular emphasis is placed on the performance and reliability of high-CW-power strained-layer InGaAs-AlGaAs diode lasers emitting in the wavelength range between 0.87 and 1.1 mu m, improved resistance to degradation of 0.78 to 0.87 mu m diode lasers afforded by the strained-layer AlInGaAs-AlGaAs and lattice-matched GaInAsP-GaInP materials systems, and improved performance of visible diode lasers utilizing the materials system GaInP-AlGaInP.>