The slab-coupled optical waveguide laser (SCOWL) is a high-brightness monolithic semiconductor diode laser concept, utilizing a slab-coupled waveguide to achieve several potentially important advances in performance over conventional laser designs. The implementation of this SCOWL concept in the AlGaAs-InGaAs materials system, using rib waveguide quantum well structures is well developed. These 915-nm lasers operate in a large, low-aspect-ratio, lowest-order spatial mode, which can be butt coupled to a single-mode fiber with high coupling efficiency. Wavelength beam combining (WBC) is a well-proven technique for power scaling of laser arrays while maintaining the beam quality of the individual elements. The high-brightness, large output mode and narrow output divergence angles of the SCOWL devices makes a SCOWL array a nearly ideal choice for wavelength beam combining applications. In this presentation we will describe the combination of SCOWL and WBC technologies that enabled the demonstration of a record brightness diode laser source that may be ideally suited for pumping Yb-based fiber lasers.
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