High-Power and Repetion Rate Nanosecond Pulse Generation in “Diode Laser—Thyristor” Stacks

The “laser diode mini-bar (LDMB) – multi-element thyristor array (META)” vertical stack design is developed and its optoelectronic characteristics are studied. It is shown that adding a highly-doped layer to a low-voltage thyristor p-base leads to an increase in the repetition rate up to 1 MHz at nanosecond laser and current pulses. Laser pulses with 11.5 W peak power and 2.4 ns pulse width at 1 MHz repetition rate are demonstrated using the META chip, comprised of 4 elements, as a high-current switch. It is shown that the difference between LDMB elements’ turn-on delays does not exceed 400 ps. An increase in the pulse repetition rate from 10 kHz to 1 MHz at the operating voltage of 25 V is accompanied by insignificant LDMB heating (up to 3 °C) and a slight decrease in the laser pulse peak power (from 11.5 W to 11.1 W).