The impact of temperature and strain-induced band gap variations on current competition and emitter power in laser bars

We report on current competition and emitter power distributions of unaged 650 nm red-emitting and 980 nm infrared tapered high-power laser bars. We observe a correlation between temperature and packaging-induced strain with respect to the emitter output power. A frown-shaped profile of the output power distribution is seen when the temperatures of the emitters near the center of the bar increase compared to those at the edges of the bar. The effect of temperature is found to dominate that of strain and therefore determine the output power distribution across the bar. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. {[}doi:10.1063/1.3600644]