Lateral Far-field Characteristics of Narrow-width 850 nm High Power GaAs/AlGaAs Laser Diodes

We investigate the lateral far-field pattern characteristics, including divergence angle change and far-field pattern analysis as output power increases, of narrow-emitter-width 850 nm GaAs/AlGaAs laser diodes (LDs). Each LD has a cavity of 1200 and 1500 ㎛ and narrow emitter width of 2.4 ㎛ for the top and 4.6 ㎛ for the bottom. The threshold currents are 35 and 40 mA, and L-I kinks appear at power levels of 326 and 403 mW, respectively. The divergence angle tends to increase due to the occurrence of first-order lateral mode and the thermal lensing effect. But with the L-I kink, the divergence angle decreases and the far-field pattern becomes asymmetric. This is due to coherent superposition between the fundamental and the first-order lateral mode. We provide detailed explanations for these observations based on high-power laser diode simulation results.