High-brightness spectral beam combining of diode laser array stack in an external cavity

We demonstrate the spectral beam combining of a diode laser stack, which contains three 970nm Mini-Bars along the fast-axis direction, in an external cavity. At the pump current of 60 A, the output power of 127 W, the spectral bandwidth of 12 nm and the Electro-optical conversion efficiency of 48.35% are achieved. The measured beam qualities after the spectral beam combining are M(2) ≈10.2 along the slow axis and M(2) ≈11.5 along the fast axis. Under a maximum injection current of 75A, the laser output power of more than 159W is achieved. The beam quality deteriorated slightly with the rising of the current from 60A to 75A, but it is enough to be coupled into a 50µm core / 0.22NA fiber.