High Power CW Operation of GaAs Injection Lasers at 77° K

Continuous-wave operation of GaAs injection lasers depends critically upon the junction temperature
¹
,
²
which, in turn, depends critically upon the heat flow from the laser body.
³
,
⁴
There are two instances in thel iterature in which continuous operation at 77° K was achieved at very low output power levels. In one, both mirror-ends of a Fabry-Perot structure were partly silvered;
⁵
in the other, stimulated emission was observed from a unit with four cleaved sides.
⁶
The purpose of this communication is to report that continuous-wave operation at 8400 Å of unsilvered GaAs lasers at 77° K has been consistently achieved at power levels near 0.65 watt and to describe the heat sink structure which has afforded the necessary thermal transfer characteristics