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High-brightness scalable continuous-wave single-mode photonic-crystal laser

M. Yoshida,Shumpei Katsuno,Takuya Inoue,John Gelleta,Koki Izumi,M. de Zoysa,K. Ishizaki,S. Noda

Published 2023 in Nature

ABSTRACT

We developed large-scale photonic-crystal surface-emitting lasers with controlled Hermitian and non-Hermitian couplings inside the photonic crystal and a pre-installed spatial distribution of the lattice constant, which leads to the realization of a continuous-wave brightness of 1 GW cm^−2 sr^−1. Realizing large-scale single-mode, high-power, high-beam-quality semiconductor lasers, which rival (or even replace) bulky gas and solid-state lasers, is one of the ultimate goals of photonics and laser physics. Conventional high-power semiconductor lasers, however, inevitably suffer from poor beam quality owing to the onset of many-mode oscillation^ 1 , 2 , and, moreover, the oscillation is destabilized by disruptive thermal effects under continuous-wave (CW) operation^ 3 , 4 . Here, we surmount these challenges by developing large-scale photonic-crystal surface-emitting lasers with controlled Hermitian and non-Hermitian couplings inside the photonic crystal and a pre-installed spatial distribution of the lattice constant, which maintains these couplings even under CW conditions. A CW output power exceeding 50 W with purely single-mode oscillation and an exceptionally narrow beam divergence of 0.05° has been achieved for photonic-crystal surface-emitting lasers with a large resonant diameter of 3 mm, corresponding to over 10,000 wavelengths in the material. The brightness, a figure of merit encapsulating both output power and beam quality, reaches 1 GW cm^−2 sr^−1, which rivals those of existing bulky lasers. Our work is an important milestone toward the advent of single-mode 1-kW-class semiconductor lasers, which are expected to replace conventional, bulkier lasers in the near future.

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