Nanosecond high-current pulsed operation of ridge-waveguide lasers

Short optical pulses with high response speed, high peak power and good beam quality are in demand in many fields such as free-space communication, metrology, medical/biotechnology applications, material processing and frequency doubling. Gain switched diode lasers are very attractive pulse sources because of their low manufacturing costs and easy handling. The understanding of the factors limiting the output power under the injection of nanosecond current pulses with very high amplitudes has not been attempted so far.