Slab-coupled 1.3-μm semiconductor laser with single-spatial large-diameter mode

A high brightness semiconductor diode laser structure, which utilizes a slab-coupled optical waveguide region to achieve several potentially important advances in performance, is proposed and experimentally demonstrated using a simple rib waveguide in an InGaAsP-InP quantum-well structure operating at 1.3-μm wavelength. These lasers operate in a large low-aspect-ratio lowest-order spatial mode, which can be butt coupled to a single-mode fiber with high coupling efficiency.