10.7 W peak power picosecond pulses from high-brightness photonic band crystal laser diode

Using a monolithic photonic band crystal laser, nearly diffraction limited laser pulses of 10.7 W peak power at 980 nm wavelength and brightness of 4×108 Wcm−2sr−1 are generated. These pulses of about 100 ps FWHM have a variable repetition rate of up to 80 MHz, making them ideal seed sources for optical power amplifiers.