Development of high power annular diode laser array using hard solder

High power QCW diode laser stacks have been widely used in pumping applications for years. Different package structures of diode laser stacks are applied for pumping the cylindrical rod crystal, such as modular G-Stack, horizontal, vertical and annular arrays. Annular array is preferred in pumping of QCW mode with low duty cycle and short pulse width, due to the advantage of compact structural size, uniform light beam distribution and convenient electric connection. However, the development of annular diode laser array using hard solder is difficult because of the complex bonding process of diode laser on annular heatsink with conventional bonding fixture. Furthermore the stress and thermal behavior is yet to be well studied on the annular diode laser array. In this work, a sophisticated annular diode laser array was developed using hard solder. Optimized structure and thermal design were conducted to achieve uniform light beam distribution and good heat dissipation. Stress release structure of diode laser stack is applied to reduce the risk of chip crack and deviation of spatial spectrum. The annular diode laser array consists of 44 bars in a ring, with the peak output power of each bar over 500W. The maximum output power of each bar reaches 673 W.