Large-area, semiconductor transverse Bragg resonance (TBR) lasers for efficient, high power operation

By incorporating a transverse Bragg grating into a large-area laser, the optical modes of the laser can be designed to improve the efficiency compared to traditional index-guided lasers. The resulting transverse Bragg resonance (TBR) waveguide can be designed to have a single lateral mode that is distributed throughout the entire width of the laser for efficient, stable, single lateral mode operation even at high powers. In addition, by designing the dispersion of the TBR modes, we can increase the modal gain at the desired lasing frequencies for further efficiency improvements. We have fabricated electrically pumped, semiconductor TBR lasers in the InP/InGaAsP material system to demonstrate the efficiency gains possible by the incorporation of such a transverse Bragg grating.