Dynamical behavior of blue broad-area laser diodes

Blue InGaN/GaN broad-ridge laser diodes show rich lateral mode dynamics and filamentation effects in addition to the longitudinal mode dynamics that are known from narrow-ridge laser diodes. We find a complex spectral, spatial and temporal behavior caused by the interplay between lateral and longitudinal mode competition mechanisms. In the experiment we measure the spectral-temporal dynamics with a streak camera, and the lateral resolution is achieved by scanning through a magnified near-field image. Additional time-averaged measurements with a high-resolution spectrometer indicate the presence of multiple longitudinal mode combs and the lateral scans show that there are different lateral modes in each mode comb. But also in separate regions of the laser spectrum, lateral modes of different order can be found.