Abstract

A diode pumped solid-state laser with an average output power of several hundred watt as needed for many material processing applications suffers from the high cost introduced by the laser diode modules. One possibility to decrease the cost of the pump modules is to reduce the demands for the spectral and output power characteristics of the individual bars within a stacked array which may result in an improved yield for the diode manufacturer. Further, the laser designer should avoid to introduce additional complexity like precisely aligned and coated coupling optics or fiber coupling of the laser diodes as far as possible.

© 1996 IEEE