TY - JOUR A1 - Hempel, M. A1 - Tomm, J.W. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias A1 - Elsaesser, T. A1 - Michel, N. A1 - Krakowski, M. T1 - Catastrophic optical damage at front and rear facets of diode lasers JF - Applied physics letters N2 - Single-pulse tests of the catastrophic optical damage (COD) are performed for three batches of diode lasers with different gain-regions. The tests involve in situ inspection of front, rear, and side of the devices by a thermocamera. Devices with an Al-containing gain-region show COD at the front facet, as expected for strong facet heating via surface recombination and reabsorption of laser light. In contrast, Al-free devices with low surface recombination rates tend to fail at the rear facet, pointing to a different heating scenario. The high carrier density at the rear facet favors heating and COD via Auger recombination processes. KW - Thermography KW - Catastrophic optical damage KW - High power diode lasers KW - Destructive testing KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Auger effect KW - Carrier density KW - Heating KW - Laser beam effects KW - Optical testing KW - Semiconductor lasers KW - Surface recombination PY - 2010 DO - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3524235 SN - 0003-6951 SN - 1077-3118 VL - 97 IS - 23 SP - 231101-1 - 231101-3 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville, NY AN - OPUS4-22763 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -