Gain-switching of laser diodes might be the most convenient way to generate picosecond laser pulses. The outstanding features of gain-switched laser diodes are a rich choice of wavelength and an easy synchronization to an external trigger source. To broaden the field of applications we pushed the peak power to the 10 W level while maintaining the essential characteristics of the laser source. In a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) configuration a tapered amplifier is used to increase the output from 10 mW to 160 mW average power. Second harmonic generation is demonstrated in a single pass setup, which results in 6.5 mW average power at 532 nm with a repetition rate of 80 MHz.

Date Published: 27 April 2005
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 5707, Solid State Lasers XIV: Technology and Devices, (27 April 2005); doi: 10.1117/12.591479

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5707:
Solid State Lasers XIV: Technology and Devices
Hanna J. Hoffman; Ramesh K. Shori, Editor(s)