Maximum output power of broad-area laser diodes

The causes for the saturation of both the continuous-wave and the pulsed output power of broad-area laser diodes driven at very high currents are investigated experimentally and theoretically. The decrease of the gain due to self-heating under continuous-wave operation and spectral holeburning and carrier heating under pulsed operation as well as hetero-barrier carrier leakage and longitudinal spatial holeburning are the dominating mechanisms limiting the maximum achievable output power.