High-power antiguided laser array fabricated without the need for overgrowth

The fabrication of conventional semiconductor antiguided laser array structures involves etching of the array profile followed by an overgrowth step. We report the fabrication of an antiguided laser array using zinc diffusion induced intermixing of a superlattice to create the necessary index step. The technique was used to fabricate a five-element, 10-μm center, antiguided laser array operating at 0.860 μm. The device operated at 1.2× diffraction limit to 3-W pulsed (total, both facets) and 1.6-W quasi-continuous-wave (CW) (100-μs pulses; total, both facets).