500-mW CW Single-Lobe Emission From Laterally Coupled Photonic Crystal Laser Arrays

Edge-emitting laser arrays based on the laterally coupled photonic band crystal (PBC) concept have been designed and fabricated at a wavelength of 925 nm. Multiple ridge lasers are pumped and coherently coupled, and several narrow passive stripes are distributed on both sides acting as PBC. Compared to the localized fundamental supermode, high-order supermodes expand over the lateral PBC region and are suppressed. Thus, stable fundamental supermode operation and narrow far-field divergence are easily obtained. For a cavity length of 500 μm, an output power of more than 500 mW/facet in continuous wave operation and a far-field divergence angle of nearly 10° (full width at half maximum) in the slow axis are achieved.