Thermal and mechanical issues of high-power laser diode degradation

A computational model for the evaluation of the thermomechanical effects that give rise to the catastrophic optical damage of laser diodes has been devised. The model traces the progressive deterioration of the device running in continuous wave conditions. The local heating of the active layer locally leads to the onset of the plastic regime. As a result, dislocations and threads of dislocations grow across the active layers and lead to rapidly growing temperatures in the quantum well. The poor power dissipation under these conditions has been identified as the key factor driving the final degradation of the laser.