Wavelength stabilized high pulse power laser diodes for automotive LiDAR

A. Knigge; A. Klehr; H. Wenzel; A. Zeghuzi; J. Fricke; A. Maaßdorf; A. Liero; G. Tränkle

doi:10.1117/12.2289569

21 March 2018 Wavelength stabilized high pulse power laser diodes for automotive LiDAR

A. Knigge, A. Klehr, H. Wenzel, A. Zeghuzi, J. Fricke, A. Maaßdorf, A. Liero, G. Tränkle

Proceedings Volume 10514, High-Power Diode Laser Technology XVI; 105140Q (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2289569
Event: SPIE LASE, 2018, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Diode lasers generating optical pulses with high peak power and lengths in the nanosecond range are key components of systems for free-space communication, metrology, material processing, spectroscopy, and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) as needed for object detection and autonomous driving. Automotive LiDAR systems demand additionally a good beam quality and low wavelength shift with temperature due to the wide operating temperature span. We present here internally wavelength stabilized lasers emitting ns optical pulses from an emission aperture between 30 μm and 100 μm with peak powers of tens of Watts at wavelengths around 905 nm. The vertical structure based on AlGaAs (confinement and cladding layers) and InGaAs (active quantum well) is especially optimized for pulsed operation with respect to the implementation of a surface Bragg grating with a high reflectivity. The fabricated 6 mm long distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) broad area (BA) lasers are electrically driven by an in-house developed high-speed unit generating 3 to 10 ns long nearly rectangular shaped current pulses with amplitudes of up to 250 A. Such lasers emit optical pulses with a peak power of more than 30 W at ~95 A pulse current up to a temperature of 85°C with a wavelength shift as low as 65 pm/K and a lateral beam propagation factor less than 10. The influence of the lateral aperture width and the pulse length on the beam quality will be shown. A monolithic integration of 3 DBR BA lasers on a single chip whose emission can be combined into a single beam raises the output power to more than 100 W.

Conference Presentation

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A. Knigge, A. Klehr, H. Wenzel, A. Zeghuzi, J. Fricke, A. Maaßdorf, A. Liero, and G. Tränkle "Wavelength stabilized high pulse power laser diodes for automotive LiDAR", Proc. SPIE 10514, High-Power Diode Laser Technology XVI, 105140Q (21 March 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2289569

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