Invited Paper

High Power Semiconductor Laser Sources For Defense And Security:

A Review Of Current Technology

Jake Bell Steve Patterson, PhD

nLIGHT Defense Group, VP Director of Advanced Technology

nLIGHT Corporation
5408 NE 88th St, Bldg E
Vancouver, Washington 98665
USA

1 Abstract

Concepts and markets of semiconductor diode lasers are introduced in the context of Defense and
Security applications. Specific, high profile applications are reviewed and current and future diode laser
technology is discussed. Advanced diode laser technology as it pertains to Infrared Countermeasures
applications is reviewed in detail along with recent 2um diode laser results and advanced packaging
product architectures from nLIGHT.

2 Introduction

Advances taking place in the semiconductor laser industry are leading to much more than higher
performance. Revolutionary changes in the design and manufacture of laser diodes are seeding
fundamental shifts in the way we think about the cost and reliability of high brightness laser systems.
What’s fundamentally different now is the collective progress being made among metrics typically
considered to be opposing or competing trades; significant power scaling and brightness in configurations
with unprecedented durability, longer lifetimes and lower costs. Higher device efficiencies and packaging
with improved heat transfer characteristics are critical in making power scaling possible. Advances in
packaging technologies that obviate complex cooling systems while providing higher brightness are
growing in importance where weight savings, reliability and complexity concerns dictate design metrics.
This paper discusses the basics of semiconductor lasers and their application to the pumping of solid-
state laser systems. The market for diode lasers is discussed next along with overviews of key
applications using diode laser technologies. The field of infrared countermeasures (IRCM), in particular,
is covered in some detail, presenting advances in the power and efficiency of laser diodes emitting the
regime around 1900-nm on up to nearly 2100-nm. Fiber based products, that permit simplified end
pumping of solid state crystals for IRCM, are also described.

2.1 High power semiconductor lasers

Semiconductor diode junctions may be constructed such that they generate light emission from that
junction. Such devices are termed light emitting diodes or LEDs. When optical feedback is provided to
direct band gap LEDs, semiconductor diode lasers are created and serve as efficient photon sources to
pump other lasers, both solid state and fiber, or to serve in direct diode applications.

Technologies for Optical Countermeasures IV, edited by David H. Titterton, Mark A. Richardson
Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6738, 67380A, (2007) · 0277-786X/07/$18 · doi: 10.1117/12.738179

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6738 67380A-1

Semiconductor lasers can be pumped by the same variety of techniques used to pump other types of
lasers; another optical source (termed photo pumping), pumping with an electron beam, or the passing of
current through the diode junction. The latter is the most common and preferred technique. Figure 1
provides one illustration of the use of sub-micron emission diode lasers to pump a Tm:YAG solid state
laser, which in turn pumps a Ho:YAG laser. Also shown in Figure 1 is an example of how improvements
in diode laser power and brightness can greatly simplify solid state diode laser systems, in this case the
direct diode pumping of Ho:YAG by diodes emitting at 1907-nm.

780-980
808 pump
pump

Nd :YAG
Tm Q-Switch OPO Crystal
Ho:YAG

1470
1907
pump Er:YAG
Ho:Y

Figure 1 – The figure shows a schematic comparison of a conventional 7xx-9xxnm pumped

Tm:YAG laser used to pump a singly-doped Ho:YAG laser and the proposed approach of 1907
nm direct diode laser pumping of Ho:YAG. The proposed approach improves efficiency and
reliability as well as reducing size, weight and complexity. Further, the long storage lifetime of
singly-doped Ho:YAG dramatically reduces the required peak pump power thereby reducing the
number of diode bars and hence cost.

Semiconductor lasers, in their simplest form, consist of a small slab of semiconductor material with two
cleaved and dielectrically coated crystallographic planes acting as mirrors. Semiconductor lasers are
differentiated from other lasers in the following ways:

1. Inverting the carrier population between the conduction and valence bands of the
semiconductors, typically achieved through the electrical pumping of the diode, results in very
high material gain implying very short cavity lengths are required. A semiconductor laser may be
viewed as a two-state laser system and, as such, provides no energy storage mechanism.
2. As the physical dimensions of the laser device are on the order of the wavelength of the laser,
then optical mode of the semiconductor laser is not Gaussian as it is in solid state lasers. Rather,
the beam profile tends to be elliptical and highly astigmatic, the beam divergences tends to be
large, with different divergences in the planes parallel and perpendicular to the junction, with the
parallel plane having M2 values ranging from 10 to 100s for gain guided, broad area devices.
3. The gain spectrum can extend across tens of nanometers.
4. Large longitudinal mode spacing resulting from cavity lengths of only several hundreds of
microns.

The term “high-power diode lasers” in the 750-980 nm wavelength range describes three configurations:
single emitters (typically 1 to 10W), bars (typically 40 to 100W) and stacks of multiple bars with power
exceeding the kW range. High-power diode laser bars are typically 1-cm wide and are composed of 10 to
50 single emitting stripes. Stacks may contain several tens of bars, vertically or horizontally stacked, and
are normally water-cooled. Any of the three configurations can be lensed in both optical axises and

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6738 67380A-2

external gratings can be attached for wavelength narrowing. The power ranges and configurations
provide general guidelines and are flexible, changing rapidly with advances in design and packaging.
Diode failures in this wavelength range are dominated by catastrophic optical damage (COD), a positive
feedback process driven by heavy optical and thermal loading of the facets, combined with non-radiative
carrier recombination. Considerable engineering effort is applied to prevent this failure mechanism, with
each vendor using various proprietary schemes with varying degrees of success.
For diode laser wavelengths longer than 1-µm, typically in the 1400-nm to 2100-nm range, powers
diminish with single emitters and bars emitting in the range of several hundred mW to 5W and bars
emitting from 10W to 50W. Again here, bars may be stacked with various optical lensing options. Diode
failures in this wavelength range are dominated by slow degradation in power and increase in operating
current evidencing typically in the range of several to many thousands of hours. Diodes lasers in the
greater than 1-µm emission range are generally considered to be more reliable, generally not requiring
the sophisticated facet passivation schemes required at sub-micron wavelengths to prevent COD.
More sophisticated means of power delivery involve coupling the output power from bars into optical
fibers, either with each emitter coupled into a separate fiber with the power delivered in a fiber bundle or
with all emitters on the bar(s) coupled into a single fiber. Even more sophisticated schemes for fiber
coupling high-power diode lasers include nLIGHT’s PearlTM product line, coupling arrays of electrically-
series connected individual high power, high efficiency, high brightness single emitters into fiber core
sizes of 200-µm and 400-µm core diameter.
Traditionally, flashlamps have been the method of choice for the pumping of solid-state gain medium.
They are being supplanted by diode laser pumps, which offer advantages in narrow spectral width,
efficiency, and lifetime. Lifetimes of several tens of thousands of hours (i.e., more than 5 years of
continuous operation), can be achieved by some form of facet protection to guard devices against
catastrophic optical mirror damage (COMD) when facet intensities exceeded 30mW per micron of
emitting aperture at sub-micron wavelengths. Impurity-induced disordering (IID) and epitaxial passivation
have proven highly effective by creating high-band gap, non-absorbing regions (windows) at the facets.
Large wave guides and long cavity lengths offer additional degrees-of-freedom to combat COMD by
reducing optical field intensities, current densities and junction temperatures. As advances are made in
the power, brightness and efficiency of wavelengths at and beyond 1400-nm, not only may intermediate
stage pumped solid-state lasers be dispensed with, the natural reliability inherent in the materials systems
of these longer wavelength diode lasers and their reduced photon energy permit even greater lifetimes
without the need for sophisticated passivation schemes.
Increases in diode brightness compared to flashlamps make for better solid-state lasers as shown in
Figure 2. There is increased demand for TEM00 lasers in all sectors, especially Military and Aerospace.
System power and efficiency remain key system discriminators for DPSSL as well. Thermal lensing puts
strict limits on the pump power and linear absorption, however, dictating longer rods with lower doping.
Longer rods in turn require pumps with large Rayleigh range so good overlap with the DPSSL mode may
be maintained TEM00. Given the beam characteristics of diode lasers, effort must be made through optics
to deliver a useable spot or deliver the energy from a fiber source.

Fundamental
High-brightness pump
mode volume

Low-brightness pump

Figure 2: Higher brightness pumps, with longer Rayleigh ranges, mitigate thermal lensing issues while
maintaining good pump overlap with the fundamental cavity mode.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6738 67380A-3

The markets associated with laser systems and diode lasers, segments within the diode laser market, and
segments within the Military and Aerospace sector will be explored in the next section.

2.2 Diode laser markets

Diode lasers are used in a variety of applications, including but not limited to, Telecommunications, Data
Storage, Medical, Industrial, and Military and Aerospace. According to Laser Focus World’s 2007 market
assessment published February 2007, diodes continue to represent the majority of total laser sales,
although, as shown in Figure 3, the percentage of diode laser sales vs. non-diode laser sales is
decreasing over time.

$6.5 64%
$6.0
$5.5 62%
$5.0
$4.5
60%
$4.0
Laser Sales, $B

$3.5
58%
$3.0 Non-Diode Laser
$2.5 Sales
56%
$2.0
Diode Laser Sales
$1.5

$1.0 54%
Diode Sales as
$0.5
Percent of Total
$0.0 52%
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Est

Figure 3: Total laser sales divided into diode and non-diode segments plotted over time. Diode sales as a
percentage of total sales are also plotted, decreasing from 65% in 2003 to 56% in 2007.

The diode laser market is frequently further sub-divided into low power and high power segments. Based
on an output power less than 1W and often in single mode output format, the telecommunications and
data storage segments are generally considered to be low power. As shown in Figure 4, also from Laser
Focus World February 2007, the low power telecommunications and data storage applications make up
the vast majority on diode laser sales, although high power diode sales are becoming an increasing piece
of the total diode laser market.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6738 67380A-4

 $6.0 18.0%

$5.5
16.0%
$5.0
14.0%
Diode Laser Sales, $B $4.5

$4.0 12.0%

$3.5
10.0%
$3.0
8.0%
$2.5

$2.0 6.0%

$1.5 High Power

4.0%
$1.0
2.0%
$0.5 Low Power

$0.0 0.0%
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 High Power as
Est Percent of Total

Figure 4: Diode laser sales divided into low power (telecommunications and optical storage) and high
power (medical, industrial, and defense) segments plotted over time. High power diode laser sales as a
percentage of total diode laser sales is also plotted, showing an increasing trend over time.

The remaining, high power, market is made up primarily of Medical, Industrial, and Military and Aerospace
applications. Among these three, the Industrial segment is by far the largest and has the most consistent
growth, primarily in support of fiber laser, DPSSL, and direct diode marking applications. The Medical
segment, dominated by sales in support of hair removal systems, has shown erratic growth over the last
several years. Figure 5 shows the segmentation of the high power market by estimated 2007 sales,
based on nLIGHT market data.

Other Applications

Military and Aerospace

Applications

Materials Processing and

Printing Applications

Medical Applications

Figure 5: High power diode laser market segmentation based on 2007 estimated sales.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6738 67380A-5

High power Military and Aerospace diode laser applications, the focus of this paper, can be further
subdivided based on the size of their respective procurement and development funding levels. Based on
nLIGHT marketing estimates, the largest amount of procurement funding is spent on Target Designator
systems, followed in descending order by Range Finding systems and Infrared Countermeasure (IRCM)
systems.

Directed Energy systems, which have very little procurement funding, received the greatest amount of
development funding, followed in descending order by Target Designator systems, IRCM systems, and
Range Finding systems. These relationships are captured in Figure 6 based on estimated funding levels
in fiscal year 2007.

$500

$450

$400

$350

$300
Program Value, $M

$250

$200

$150

$100 Other

Directed Energy
$50
Infrared Countermeasure

Range Finding
$0
Procurement Programs Development Programs Target Designation

Figure 6: Estimated funding levels for 2007 Military and Aerospace

procurement and development programs.

Each of the applications with large procurement or development funding levels, namely Target
Designation, Range Finding, IRCM, and Directed Energy, will be detailed in the following sections of this
document. Within each of these sections, a brief description of the application is given along with an
overview of existing diode laser products used for that application, and expected diode laser technology
development trends.

In response to industry interest, the IRCM section contains a more significant review of diode laser
technology and emerging solutions than its counterparts.

Military and Aerospace applications including, but not limited to, aiming lasers, laser radar, laser initiated
ordinance, and illumination lasers are represented by the Other category in Figure 6. Given the limited
nature of this overview document, they were considered beyond the scope of this work.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6738 67380A-6

3 Applications

The following sections describe specific Military laser applications, provide insight into the state of the art
for current diode lasers in these applications, and estimate trends in performance for these diode lasers.
The applications, namely Target Designation, Range Finding, Infrared Countermeasures, and Directed
Energy, were selected based on the prevalence of procurement and development programs in support of
them.

3.1 Target Designation

3.1.1 Overview

Improving munitions accuracy through laser guidance has been a top military priority since well before the
Vietnam War era, but was first deployed during it. In its most fundamental form, seeking munitions locate
and lock onto modulated light reflecting off of a laser-designated target. The seeker modifies its flight
path to arrive at the designated spot, resulting in a high degree of kill accuracy.
Target designator systems can be hand-held, vehicle mounted, or mounted on fixed wing, rotary, or
unmanned aircraft. Recent improvements in reducing system size and weight have led to more
opportunities for hand held and UAV applications.

3.1.2 Current Diode Laser Technology

Target designators were originally designed as flashlamp pumped solid state lasers, usually designed in a
side-pumped Nd:YAG configuration with a controlled Q switch to manage output pulse format. As the
power per 1cm bar and electrical-to-optical efficiency improved, diode lasers have begun to replace
flashlamps for pumping.
To designate over long distances, most targeting systems require 50-200mJ of output energy. To meet
this, significant pump peak power is required. To support this need, quasi continuous wave (QCW) bar
packages were developed to produce the combination of high peak power, but low average waste heat, in
a conductively cooled format. Vendors such as Coherent, Cutting Edge Optronics, Dilas, Lasertel,
nLIGHT (Figure 7), Quantel Laser Diode, and SCD manufacture QCW stacks as standard products.
While initial peak power per bar was below 40W QCW, power levels have steadily climbed over time.
Currently, several vendors, including Coherent, nLIGHT, and Quantel Laser Diode, offer bars emitting as
much as 200W/bar. nLIGHT and Quantel Laser Diode offer this performance level while maintaining
electrical to optical efficiency in excess of 50% with operating temperature greater than 70C, as
demonstrated in Figure 8.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6738 67380A-7

 70

60

Si
IW% 50

Efficiency (%)
40
Previous efficiency
New efficiency
30

20

10

-5

5
5

15

25

35

45

55

65

75
-4

-3

-2

-1
Temperature (C)

Figure 7: Photos of the Figure 8: nLIGHT QCW electrical to optical efficiency over temperature for
nLIGHT SummitTM QCW QCW operation (200W/bar, 200usec pulse width, 100Hz duty cycle).
product line

One of the more significant innovations was the migration from soft solder (Indium) packaging to hard
solder (gold-tin) packaging. This has had numerous reliability benefits and has improved package
performance under wide temperature excursions. Coherent, nLIGHT, and Quantel Laser Diode have
published evidence of hard soldered QCW packaging.

3.1.3 Future Technology Trends

The hand-held designator segment will continue to be pressured by the user community to decrease
system size and weight. From a diode perspective, this can be accomplished by eliminating active
thermal management, increasing and stabilizing diode efficiency over temperature, and by increasing
diode laser bar brightness.

To eliminate active thermal management, the diodes must be designed to work at elevated temperatures.
This has been enabled by use of hard soldered packages like those of Coherent. In a January 23, 2007
press release, Coherent announced its PulseLifeTM Conductively Cooled Package with quoted
performance up to 75C operating temperature.

Furthermore, the laser architecture must address diode wavelength shift over temperature. One
mechanism is to utilize wavelength stabilized diodes, such as those offered by Quintessence Photonics or
Alfalight. Goldberg, Nettleton, and others from the US Army Night Vision Labs have published various
approaches to laser architecture that accommodate changing diode laser wavelength over temperature.
They have also published alternative end-pumped architectures for further size and weight reductions.

Increasing and stabilizing diode efficiency over temperature is a significant challenge for the industry.
nLIGHT, Alfalight, and JDSU, contractors for DARPA’s Super High Efficiency Diode Sources program,
have demonstrated increased electrical to optical efficiency at wavelengths around 980nm. nLIGHT has
published 808nm peak hero efficiency results of over 70%.

By increasing the brightness of 1cm bars, the quantity of bars can be reduced. Furthermore, as
published by Goldberg et al., higher brightness pump sources can lead to alternative architectures, such
as end pumping. End-pumped designators appear to have several size, weight, and other benefits over
traditional side-pumped approaches.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6738 67380A-8

3.2 Range finding

3.2.1 Overview

Range finding, in a generic sense, is the process by which the distance to a target is computed by
counting how long a pulse of light takes to hit the target and reflect back, multiplying by the speed of light,
and dividing by two to account for the round trip flight time. Range finding is commonly used in military
applications such as target location and navigation.
Range finders generally require output energy of 1-5mJ, although higher energy systems for long
distance ranging are not uncommon on air platforms. Depending on ranging distance, ranging frequency,
and resolution requirements, direct diodes, flashlamp pumped solid state lasers, or diode pumped solid
state lasers may be used as the transmitting laser.

3.2.2 Current Diode Laser Technology

Most operational scenarios require infrequent ranging, usually no more frequent than once every 1-3
seconds, with distance requirements greater than one kilometer. The combination of these requirements
has led to the preponderance of military range finding procurements being based on flashlamp pumped
solid state lasers.

3.2.3 Future Technology Trends

Increased brightness and efficiency from QCW products has enabled successful ranging with end
pumped applications (Goldberg, et al), suggesting that QCW packaging may be a viable path forward for
range finding between 1-10Hz.

In addition, improvements in performance of diode lasers emitting in the eyesafe wavelength regions
suggest a direct diode approach may be feasible. Perkin Elmer, among others, has developed multi-
emitter devices in small, compact packages for this purpose.

3.3 Infrared countermeasures

3.3.1 Overview

The term IRCM is a generic term to describe any infrared countermeasure system that tracks and directs
energy toward a threat, usually a heat seeking ground-to-air or air-to-air missile. Defensive
countermeasure applications cover the spectrum from small lightweight low power infrared
countermeasures to large, heavy, high power, airborne laser systems. IR countermeasure systems use
lasers to present a ‘false target’ to the seeker heads of heat-seeking missiles.

Both Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems have designed advanced infrared countermeasures under
funding from the US Department of Homeland Security to protect commercial aircraft from heat seeking
threats. Similar compact systems provide military aircraft with increased protection from common
battlefield threats jamming IR threats. In both applications, pulsed flashing of an IR energy source
confuses the missile guidance system into tracking the directed IRCM rather than the target aircraft.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6738 67380A-9

3.3.2 Future Technology Trends

IRCM sources must operate in the regions of thermal signature of jet engines and at regions of
atmospheric transmission. Figure 1, top shows a typical system for reaching out to emission at
wavelength ~2.1-µm (still longer wavelengths may be achieved by using the emission of the Ho:YAG
laser to pump an optical parametric oscillator). In this embodiment, sub-micron diode lasers pump a
Th:YAG laser, whose output pumps a Ho:YAG laser. This system suffers from complexity, a large
quantum defect, and concomitant reliability concerns. At bottom in Figure 1, a greatly simplified system,
using direct diode pumping of the Ho:YAG, is presented. As Ho:YAG is a quasi- three level system, it
requires a very bright source diode to be realized.

Advances in diode design at wavelengths in the range of 1900-nm and beyond can enable a direct diode
pumped IRCM system. Figure 9 (Left) shows a 1-cm wide, 1.5-mm cavity length, of 20% fill factor, 1907-
nm diode laser bar manufactured by nLIGHT. Peak power of 37W continuous wave and peak wall plug
wall efficiency of 23% is obtained while operated at 5C and a water flow rate of 0.5 liters/min. When the
same bar is operated at room temperature (20C) and reduced water flow rate of 0.2 liters/min. the peak
power is still 25W continuous wave and peak wall plug wall efficiency is 20%. The low photon energy of
these devices greatly minimizes the concerns of catastrophic mirror damage prevalent in laser diodes
emitting around 800-nm. Therefore, these bars need not be de-rated nearly as far as 8xx-nm diode
lasers, and the useable power can be as high as 28W when operated at 5C and 0.5 liters/minute.
The emitted spectral width is 18-nm FWHM at 160A. Broadening spectral widths are consistent with the
physics of long wavelength semiconductor diode lasers. Spectral width can be readily reduced into the
absorption width of Ho:YAG through the use of volume Bragg gratings (VBGs) or gratings internal to the
diode lasers themselves. At right in Figure 9, is a similar bar, emitting ~2.08-µm, reaching a peak CW
power of 25W and peak E-to-O efficiency of 20% at 5oC water temperature and 0.5 liters/minute water
flow rate. At a reduced flow rate of 0.2 liters/minute and 20oC water temperature, peak power is 14W CW
and 14% peak E-to-O efficiency.

40.0 25 30.0 25

35.0
25.0
20 20
30.0
Output power (W)
Output power (W)

20.0

Efficiency (%)
Efficiency (%)

25.0 15 15
20.0 15.0
10 10
15.0
10.0
10.0
5 5
5.0
5.0

0.0 0 0.0 0
0.0 50.0 100.0 150.0 200.0 0.0 50.0 100.0 150.0 200.0
Current (A) Current (A)

Figure 9: Left- Peak CW output power of 37W and peak electrical-to-optical conversion efficiency of
23% emitting at ~1907-nm was achieved at 5 oC and 0.5 liters/minute water flow rate. Right- Peak CW
output power of 25W and peak electrical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 23%at emission ~2.08-µm
was achieved at 5 oC and 0.5 liters/minute water flow rate.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6738 67380A-10

Fiber based solutions offer further brightness enhancements for the direct pumping of Ho:YAG. In Figure
10, at left, is the power and electrical-to-optical efficiency curves for the nLIGHT PearlTM package shown
at right. 10W CW emission near 1892-nm is obtained at a case temperature of 25C for this conductively
cooled package. Power is expected to reach 35W out of a 400-µm core fiber over the next year for this
development phase package and wavelength.

14
12
Power, Efficiency

10
8
6
4
2
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Current

Figure 10: Left- the L-I and E-to-O curves for an nLight Pearl box. The box emits 10W CW at 1892-nm
from a 400-µm core fiber at 25C base temperature and is conductively cooled. Right- The Pearl box. The
units is less than three inches long, two inches wide and 1 inch tall and less than 500 grams in weight.

Figure 11 shows the connector and field replaceable fiber. The wiring harness for the connector is
included with the package. Figure 12 shows the LIV curves for a 808-nm Pearl engineering unit capable
of delivering over 200-W CW at a drive current of less than 7A as the emitters are electrically connected
in series. The use of single emitters connected in series enhances the reliability and brightness of Pearl
while reducing size. The reduced current requirement eases driver development, cost, weight and
complexity and permits the use of the small connector of Figure 11, rather than the large, bulky
connectors of bar-based fiber coupled products.

Figure 11: Left- is the electrical connector for the Pearl box in Figure 10. Right- The field replaceable,
high power SMA connected fiber.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6738 67380A-11

 Component
L IV at 16°C CW Test Test description
under test
# units Results

240 60.000
Single Emitter 20 all pass
High Temp Storage 80°C soak, 100 hours
200 50.000
2x5 Pearl 2 all pass

Volts, Efficiency
160 40.000 -40°C to +80°C, 5°C/min,
10min dwell, 100 cycles. Single Emitter 20 all pass
Watts

Pass/fail criteria: any changes

120 30.000 Temp Cycling in pointing, divergence, LIV,
NA, wavelength shift, and/or 2x5 Pearl 2 all pass
80 20.000 spectral width leading to spec

MIL-STD-883 Method 2007:

Vibration Cond. A, 5 and 10G, 20- 2x5 Pearl 4 all pass
40 10.000 2000Hz, 4min/cycle,

MIL-STD-883 Method 2002:

0 0.000 Shock 5x/axis, 100G, 6ms, 1/2 sine
2x5 Pearl 4 all pass
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Am p s 60W at 35C case. Pass if ongoing; 6000 device-
Lifetest <5%∆
2x5 Pearl 5
hrs to date

Figure 12: Left- As the diodes in the Pearl unit are connected electrically in series, achieving over 200W
CW at 808-nm at less then 7A drive current. This technique permits the use of the connector of Figure 11
and the small unit size and weight. Right- Pearl has withstood rigorous environmental testing.

Pearl represents a key advancement in reliable, lightweight, high brightness, laser pumps. The unit is
wavelength agnostic, supporting wavelengths from visible red to nearly 2.1-µm with only a change in
optical coatings. The Pearl family does not require water-cooling and present development plans include
scaling to kW level powers.

3.4 Directed energy

3.4.1 Overview

Directed-energy weapon, as a class, are those weapons that direct energy at a target by means other
than a projectile. Lasers represent a subset of the directed-energy weapons using light to transfer energy
to a target. Laser weapons usually generate brief high-energy pulses with a million joules or more of
energy imparted to the target in the form of a laser pulse. The effect on the target is comparable to
hundreds of g’s causing damage via mechanical shear resulting from the surface of the target being
explosively evaporated.

Existing directed energy lasers are of the usually of the chemical variety, although directed energy lasers
based on solid-state materials are under intense development to bypass the limitations inherent in
chemically based systems. In the case of the solid state lasers, extreme performance demands are
placed in the diode pump lasers, driving requirements for power density not previously seen.

3.4.2 Current Diode Laser Technology

Spectra Physics and Jenoptik have demonstrated impressive results, with peak CW powers near or in
excess of 1 kW from single, 1-cm, diode laser bar on a actively-cooled microchannel cooler. Such
spectacular results are achieved via specialized techniques that currently do not lend themselves well to
commercial use, but the process of achieving these results will yield more detailed understanding of high
power semiconductor lasers.

More commonly, commercial bars are de-rated to around 100W CW from a 1-cm bar, using Indium solder
as the most common method of attach of the bar to the Copper heat sink. To achieve the pump power
densities required for directed energy laser weapons, the bars are usually closely stacked in a vertical
package with arrays of the package then tiled horizontally, making a 2-dimensional array facing the solid
state gain medium. nLIGHT's CascadesTM product line is an example of vertical water-cooled stacks.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6738 67380A-12

Large amounts of high flow-rate water with carefully controlled chemistry are required to dissipate the
hundreds of kW of heat generated by the pump diodes during operation of a directed energy system.
Sometimes, to as a further risk mitigation approach, the diode lasers must be operated quasi-CW with
pulse widths of a few hundred microseconds, minimizing the amount of waste heat generated but
introducing significant stresses in the thermal expansion mismatch of the GaAs bar and Copper cooler.

3.4.3 Future Technology Trends

To further push the state of the art, advances in reliability beyond the limits set by Indium soldered diode
bars on Copper-based heat sinks, and the inherent material incompatibility issues under pulse operation,
must be made. In general, Indium is being phased out as a solder for laser die attach across the industry.
The high fatigue strength and low creep characteristics of eutectic gold-tin (AuSn 80/20) solder, as an
example of alternative solders, offers superior lifetime under pulsed conditions, long-term stability of
wavelength and polarization, as well as high temperature operation.

The mismatch in coefficient of thermal expansion between GaAs lasers and copper heat sinks in
combination with the high modulus, shear strength and solidification temperature of eutectic AuSn,
requires a GaAs die to be mated with an expansion-matched heat sink material. Unfortunately, using
CTE-matched materials, such as CuW, AlN, CuMo, or BeO, available today as inserts or submounts,
result in a thermal path that is roughly half the thermal conductivity of copper alone, resulting in high
junction temperatures and earlier thermal rollover and/or reduced lifetime of the device.

Proposed materials solutions include, but are not limited to, diamond-metal matrix and nano-particle
composites that are well matched to the expansion coefficient of GaAs and have equivalent, or even
better, thermal conductivity of copper.

The directed energy community is developing an interest in fiber laser technology in parallel, and
sometimes as part of, solid state architecture. The interest in fiber lasers comes largely in
acknowledgement of the technical challenges associated with thermal management of the solid state
directed energy system. While distributed and efficient fiber laser systems present simpler thermal
management problems, they are limited by beam combination technology.

The growth in the Industrial sector of the high power diode laser segment discussed earlier was driven by
the need for fiber laser pump diodes in materials processing applications. Defense-oriented fiber lasers
will need similar solutions. High brightness 915nm and 976nm devices, currently provided by JDSU,
Bookham, LIMO, Jenoptik, and others will be in increasing demand.

3.5 Other defense and security applications

Other defense and security applications, such as LADAR, laser initiated ordinance, illumination, aiming
lasers, and mass spectroscopy represent a small portion, by sales, of the total high power diode laser
sales in the Military and Aerospace segment. The authors believe these to be critical applications with
significant defense and commercial value, but to be beyond the scope of this overview document.

4 Summary

This paper presented introductory technical and market information related to semiconductor diode lasers
in the context of Military and Aerospace applications. After establishing defense applications based on
current markets, an overview, summary of current diode laser technology, and a summary of future diode
laser technology trends was discussed. As part of this discussion, specific details regarding advanced
IRCM diode laser solutions were highlighted.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6738 67380A-13