Ultrahigh-brightness 850 nm GaAs/AlGaAs photonic crystal laser diodes

One-dimensional photonic crystal lasers emitting in the 850 nm range show high internal quantum efficiencies of 93% and very narrow vertical beam divergence of 7.1 ° (full width at half maximum). 50 μ m broad area lasers with unpassivated facets exhibit a high total output power of nearly 20 W in pulsed mode with a divergence of 9.5 ° × 11.3 ° leading to a record brightness of 3 × 10 8 W cm − 2 sr − 1 , being presently the best value ever reported for a single broad area laser diode. 100 μ m broad devices with unpassivated facets show continuous wave operation with an output power of 1.9 W.