DOI 10.

1007/s10946-020-09896-4
Journal of Russian Laser Research, Volume 41, Number 4, July, 2020

INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFICIENCY OF SPECTRAL BEAM

COMBINING OF LASER DIODE ARRAY IN A CAVITY
WITH THE SPECTRALLY SELECTIVE OUTPUT COUPLER

S. I. Derzhavin,1 V. P. Yakunin,2 R. V. Grishaev,2 Y. V. Kravchenko,1

D. N. Mamonov,1 and M. D. Khomenko,2∗
1 Prokhorov General Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences
Vavilov Str. 38, Moscow 119991, Russia
2 Institute on Laser and Information Technologies

Branch of the Federal Scientific Research Center

“Crystallography and Photonics” of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Svyatoozerskaya Str. 1, Shatura 140700, Russia
∗ Corresponding author e-mail: hmd @ laser.ru

Abstract
We investigate the operating modes of diode lasers in the external cavity scheme of spectral beam
combining, using the virtual laser-diode array method. We determine the spectral range of the diode
array and the watt–ampere characteristics of a single-diode laser for various wavelengths. We experi-
mentally show that by varying the output coupler transmission with the wavelength, one can optimize
the generation power of laser diodes in the array and force it to work in different regions of the gain
bandwidth of the active medium.

Keywords: spectral beam combining, laser-diode array, coupling efficiency.

1. Introduction
Currently, semiconductor lasers, due to their high efficiency (around and over 50%), compactness,
high reliability, long lifetime, simplicity, and low cost of operation, have become the most common type
of lasers [1]. But even the most powerful semiconductor lasers have a radiation power not exceeding
tens of watts. Therefore, to create high-power semiconductor (diode) lasers, arrays (assemblies) of laser
diodes are used, namely, one-dimensional ones – arrays and two-dimensional ones – matrices [2].
In this case, the radiation of the diode assemblies is of poor quality. A laser radiation is a superposition
of beams with asymmetric cross sections from individual emitting laser diodes that make up the assembly.
The most promising direction for creating high-performance, high-power diode lasers with high beam
quality is the summation of the beams of individual laser diodes using various combining methods.
All beam-combining methods can be divided into two classes – coherent and incoherent ones. The
coherent methods of laser-diode-beam combining are practically not used because of a set of fundamental
requirements that are difficult to fulfill. Therefore, incoherent methods, due to the simplicity of the
conditions for their implementation, have become more widespread and applied in practice.
The diode-laser systems with incoherent combining are built on the basis of laser-diode arrays. Since
laser diodes do not interact with each other in this combining method, the divergence of the radiation of
the entire laser system will coincide with the divergence of a single element. That is, to obtain high-quality
radiation, a diode array consisting of single-mode laser diodes is desired.

Manuscript submitted by the authors in English on June 2, 2020.

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Volume 41, Number 4, July, 2020 Journal of Russian Laser Research

The most effective method of incoherent com-

bining of a set of laser diodes is the spectral beam
combining scheme [3–5]. It is shown in Fig. 1. The
key elements of this scheme are an array of laser
diodes with collimating microoptics, a matching
lens, a diffraction grating, and an output coup-
ler. Diode lasers and the diffraction grating are
located at one focal length away from the matching
lens. Laser beams from all diodes are spatially over-
lapped at the diffraction grating. The beams after
the diffraction grating are directed perpendicular to
the output coupler. In this case, each diode in the
array has its own feedback and, due to the disper-
sion on the diffraction grating, it emits at its own Fig. 1. Scheme of spectral beam combining of the array
of laser diodes.
wavelength. Thus, by combining the beams on the
diffraction grating, one provides a single laser beam at the output.
The quality of this beam in an ideal system is completely identical to the beam quality of a single
diode in the array. We also note that increase in the spatial brightness occurs due to the deterioration
of the spectral brightness. The main condition for operability of the spectral beam combining scheme is
the absence of overlap between the spectra of the laser diodes being combined. For the wavelengths of
adjacent diodes to be spatially resolved by the diffraction grating, the distance between adjacent diodes
F WG
should be at least (in the paraxial approximation), where F is the focal length of the matching
λ
lens, λ is the wavelength, and WG is the beam size of an individual diode on the diffraction grating [6].
However, it should be taken into account that the gain band of laser diodes is limited to ∼50 nm.
This means that the wavelength difference between the first and last diodes in the array should fit into
this spectral interval. The wavelength band of the diode array of length LA in the dispersion resonator
LA
in the paraxial approximation is determined by the relation , where Dα is the angular dispersion
Dα F
produced by the diffraction grating [6]. Thus, the semiconductor lasers that make up the diode array
operate under different conditions. The outside diodes are located on the periphery of the spectral range,
where the gain of the active medium is lower. Since the spectral beam combining scheme under study
is based on a resonant cavity, it is possible to influence the laser output parameters by changing the
resonator parameters. In this work, we discuss the possibility to increase the efficiency of spectral beam
combining of a laser diode array in the spectral beam combining scheme with an external cavity.

2. Experimental Setup

In the experiments, we employ the virtual diode-array method where, instead of the diode array itself,
we use a single diode laser (SLD) moving in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis of the scheme;
see Fig. 1. The parameters of a single diode laser used coincide with those of a single diode laser in the
array. One can see in Fig. 2 that the transverse position of the diode and the generation wavelength are
related by a linear dependence λ = const · X.

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Fig. 2. Dependence of the output radiation wavelength Fig. 3. Watt–ampere characteristic of a single-mode
on the transverse position of the laser diode. laser diode in the experimental setup with spherical mi-
crooptics and an external cavity with a 60% reflecting
output coupler.
In the experiments, a GaAs-based single-mode laser diode with a single quantum well and a symmetric
spatial distribution of the output radiation was used [7]. To prevent self-running generation without
external cavity, the front facet of the diode has a reflection coefficient <0.1%. In Fig. 3, we show the
watt–ampere characteristic of a diode laser in an external cavity obtained with an output mirror with a
60% reflection coefficient at the generation wavelength. The graph shows that the cooling system provides
sufficient heat dissipation, and saturation of the output power by heat is not observed.
The divergence of the diode radiation was experimentally measured. The divergence in the vertical
plane perpendicular to the p–n junction (along the fast axis), determined by the full width 1/e2 point,
is 13.5◦ . In the transverse direction (along the slow axis), it is equal to 11.5◦ . The diode strip has
4.5 μm width and 4 μm height. These values allow one to estimate the minimum value of the beam
quality available in the spectral beam combining system, namely, Qx = BBPx = 0.45 mm·mrad and
Qy = BBPy = 0.47 mm·mrad. If we compare these numbers with diffraction-limited divergence (λ/π =
0.305), we can say that the beam quality of these diodes is fairly good.
An important component of the optical scheme is microoptics. It is used to reduce the size of the
diode beam on the matching lens. Its joint action with the matching lens should provide a collimated
beam. In the experiment, spherical microlenses with a diameter of 1.5 mm and a focal length of 350 μm,
with an antireflection coating at the working wavelength, are used. The third significant component of
the scheme is the diffraction grating. In the experiment, we used a diffraction grating of 1000 lines/mm.
The measurements showed that, for the wavelengths in the range of the gain band of the laser diode,
the amount of energy emitted into the – 1 order from the total power incident on the grating is equal to
78.3%. Thus, the single-pass losses induced by the diffraction grating are 21.7%.
The rest parts of the setup are the matching lens and the output coupler. The 60 cm focusing convex–
convex lens with antireflection coatings was employed as the matching one. Output couplers with the
reflection coefficients of 11%, 30%, 60%, and 80% were used, as well as a glass plate without a reflection
coating. The reflection coating is applied on one side of the mirror; therefore, in order to avoid the
interference arising from the other side, an optical wedge was attached to it by the optical contact.

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3. The Results of the Experiments

Using the virtual laser-diode array, we investigated the spectral characteristics of the diode lasers in
the spectral beam combining scheme. The spectrum of a single-laser-diode output radiation is shown in
Fig. 4. In this case, the transmission coefficient of the output mirror in the studied spectral range does
not depend on the wavelength. A 80% high-reflection mirror was used to determine the spectral range
of generation as accurately as possible.
To support the obtained spectral dependence of
the output radiation, we also studied the lumines-
cence spectrum of the active medium of the laser
diode; in Fig. 4, we show that the both dependences
correspond to each other. At a fixed pump rate,
there exists an optimum transmittance of the out-
put mirror at which the maximum output power is
obtained. As follows from Fig. 4, at the edges of
the spectral range the gain of the diode-laser ac-
tive medium is small due to the low pump rate,
while in the center of the spectral range the gain
can saturate due to the high laser intensity. There-
fore, for diode lasers located in different parts of
the diode array in the spectral beam combining
scheme, it makes sense to use output couplers with Fig. 4. The output intensity of the laser diode () and
wavelength-dependent reflections. the luminescence spectrum of its active medium.
To check the effect of the output couplers with different reflections on the lasing power, experiments
were carried out to measure the watt–ampere characteristics of laser diodes in different spectral regions
of generation (Fig. 5). It is seen in Fig. 6 that for both wavelengths, increase in the transmission of

a) b)

Fig. 5. Watt–ampere characteristic for a wavelength of 960 nm (a) and 983.7 nm (b). Here, T = 20% (),
T = 50 − 53% (), and T = 68 − 72% ().

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mirrors leads to the increase in the output power. The power saturation occurred only when the output
coupler had 4% reflection coefficient (Fig. 6).
The output power of a laser with a stable resonator is given by the following formula [8]:

1−R   
P = AIs √ g0 l − | ln RVs2 | , (1)
(1 − R) + R(1/Vs − Vs )

where Is is the saturation intensity, Vs is the loss factor per transit in the resonator, R is the reflection
coefficient of the output coupler, g0 is a small signal gain, and A is the calibration coefficient.
In view of formula (1) and Fig. 6, we estimate
that g0 l = 3.9, Is = 290 kW/cm2 , and Vs = 0.73.
The latter value is in good agreement with a pre-
viously measured radiation loss of 21.7% on the
diffraction grating. Thus, increasing the reflec-
tion coefficient of the output coupler at the edges
of the spectral range of the diode array, one can
increase the total output power of the diode ar-
ray. To verify this hypothesis, two spectrally se-
lective mirrors were made, their spectral depen-
dences of the transmittance are shown in Fig. 7.
The transmission maxima of both mirrors are sub-
stantially shifted to the short-wavelength region
of the spectrum with respect to the luminescence
maximum of the diode-laser active medium. Us-
ing the virtual array method, we studied the spec- Fig. 6. Dependence of the laser-diode output power on
tral range of laser-diode generation in the spectral the transmission of the output coupler for various pump
beam combining scheme with these mirrors (out- currents, namely, 0.5 A (), 0.6 A (), 0.7 A (), and
put couplers). 0.8 A (); the lasing wavelength is 960 nm.

In Fig. 8, we show that the use of the output coupler with the wavelength–dependent reflectivity
results in a significant change in the generation spectrum of the diode array. For mirror 1, which is
less shifted toward the short-wavelength region of the spectrum relative to the luminescence maximum,
an increase in the corresponding output power is observed at both ends of the spectral range of the
diode laser array as compared to a nonspectrally selective output coupler (Fig. 4). Mirror 2, for which
the transmission spectrum is shifted further to the short-wavelength region, the spectrum broadens to
the long-wavelength region, however, with a lower relative output power, since the transmittance of the
mirror is lower there. In the short-wavelength region, the maximum transmittance of mirror 2 coincides
with the edge of the region of the active medium gain and cannot provide an increase in the relative
output power. Lasing operation terminates abruptly at a wavelength of ∼ 950 nm. It is substantial that
the use of these mirrors causes significant changes in the lasing operation spectrum of the diode laser
generation region, shifting the generation maximum to the shorter wavelength.
From the above it follows that the output power of the diode array in the spectral beam combining
scheme can be increased by optimizing the spectral characteristics of the reflectance/transmittance of
the output coupler.

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Fig. 8. Emission spectra of the laser diode array

Fig. 7. Spectral dependences of the spectrally-selective in a spectral beam combining scheme with spectrally-
output couplers for mirror 1 (curve 1) and for mir- selective output couplers with mirror 1 (curve 1) and
ror 2 (curve 2). with mirror 2 (curve 2), and output powers for mir-
ror 1 (curve 3) and for mirror 2 (curve 4).

4. Conclusions
In this work, we investigated the performance characteristics of the spectral beam combining of laser
diode array. Using the virtual array method, the spectral range of the laser diode array was determined,
and the watt–ampere characteristics of the laser diodes making up the laser diode array were measured
in various regions of the spectral range. We measured the dependences of the output power of the laser
diodes in various regions of the spectral range on the resonator parameters. The spectral beam combining
scheme with spectrally selective output couplers allows one to obtain a wider lasing generation spectrum
of the diode array and to increase the relative output power at the edges of the generation spectrum.
Thus, after the adjustment of the wavelength selective reflectivity of the output coupler, it is possible to
increase the output power of the spectral beam combining of laser diode array.

Acknowledgments
This work was partially supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education within the State
Assignment FSRC “Crystallography and Photonics” of the Russian Academy of Sciences and by the
Russian Foundation for Basic Research under Grant No. 18-29-20086.

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