High-brightness tapered diode laser amplifiers at 1550 nm and 1650 nm

Watt-class semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) in the wavelength range from 1500 nm to 1650 nm offer performance enhancements for various applications including remote sensing, optical communications, and LIDAR, with the potential to enable efficient, compact, and cost-effective system solutions. Recent technological advancements have enabled high power diffraction-limited output from diode laser amplifiers with a tapered architecture. Freedom Photonics has developed SOA packages with fiber-coupled output and free space output, delivering multi-watt continuous wave output power at 1550 nm and at 1650 nm. Device-level robustness test results and package-level environmental test results will be presented. The 1550 nm tapered laser devices have sustained >16,000 hours of ongoing stress testing with negligible degradation, indicating good reliability for commercial qualification.