High-power vertical external-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Recently multiwatt power levels have been generated from Vertical External-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers in high quality spatially symmetric output beams. While these results are very impressive for a high brightness semiconductor source, they have largely been achieved in a wavelength band already well served by conventional solid-state lasers. To fully realise the potential of this technology, the wavelength versatility offered by the semiconductor materials must be utilized. Significant power scaling at wavelengths away from 1µm is a key technical challenge for the VECSEL developer.