Emitted beam stabilization in junction plane by lateral periodic structure in laser diodes emitting at 980 nm

In this paper the possibility of improvement of emitted beam quality of high-power laser diodes by stabilization of an optical field distribution in the junction plane, forced by lateral periodicity built into their wide-stripe waveguide is described. Current flow control by such periodic structure prevents the lateral current crowding, carrier accumulation at the stripe edges and optical far-field blooming typical for conventional wide-stripe laser diodes. As a result, stabilization of the lateral emitted beam divergence in wide drive current range of CW operation has been evidenced.