980nm diode laser pump modules operating at high temperature

Existing thermal management technologies for diode laser pumps place a significant load on the size, weight and power consumption of High Power Solid State and Fiber Laser systems, thus making current laser systems very large, heavy, and inefficient in many important practical applications. This problem is being addressed by the team formed by Freedom Photonics and Teledyne Scientific through the development of novel high power laser chip array architectures that can operate with high efficiency when cooled with coolants at temperatures higher than 50 degrees Celsius and also the development of an advanced thermal management system for efficient heat extraction from the laser chip array. This paper will present experimental results for the optical, electrical and thermal characteristics of 980 nm diode laser pump modules operating effectively with liquid coolant at temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius, showing a very small change in performance as the operating temperature increases from 20 to 50 degrees Celsius. These pump modules can achieve output power of many Watts per array lasing element with an operating Wall-Plug-Efficiency (WPE) of >55% at elevated coolant temperatures. The paper will also discuss the technical approach that has enabled this high level of pump module performance and opportunities for further improvement.