High power AlGaAs/GaAs laser diode array cm-bars and their thermal management

High power AlGaAs/GaAs laser diode array (LDA) cm-bars emitting at around 808 nm have been designed and fabricated for applications in diode bumped solid-state laser technology. Both thermoelectric and water coolers were used for thermal management and compared for their heat dissipation efficiency. At a quasi-continuous working condition of 20% duty cycle and 1 kHz, the peak operating power of the LDA is about 61.8 W with an electro-optical conversion efficiency about 38%. The laser operation temperatures determined from redshifts of the laser-emitting spectrum are compatible with direct measurement from thermocouples. Finally, both static and transient thermal analyses were applied to the LDAs using finite element modeling (FEM) and the results match well with the spectral analysis and thermocouple measurement.