Designing a multi-layer optical system with designated optical characteristics is an inverse design problem in which the resulting design is determined by several discrete and continuous parameters. In particular, we consider three design parameters to describe a multi-layer stack: Each layer's dielectric material and thickness as well as the total number of layers. Such a combination of both, discrete and continuous parameters is a challenging optimization problem that often requires a computationally expensive search for an optimal system design. Hence, most methods merely determine the optimal thicknesses of the system's layers. To incorporate layer material and the total number of layers as well, we propose a method that considers the stacking of consecutive layers as parameterized actions in a Markov decision process. We propose an exponentially transformed reward signal that eases policy optimization and adapt a recent variant of Q-learning for inverse design optimization. We demonstrate that our method outperforms human experts and a naive reinforcement learning algorithm concerning the achieved optical characteristics. Moreover, the learned Q-values contain information about the optical properties of multi-layer optical systems, thereby allowing physical interpretation or what-if analysis.

Blue high-power semiconductor lasers have increased greatly in performance over the recent decade enabling new application fields from high brightness projection up to materials processing beyond 1000W output power systems. Base for best system performance is optimal chip design and reliability of the semiconductor device. In this paper chip design optimization of blue high-power semiconductor laser bars will be shown: In contrast to IR laser bars with high lateral emitter fill factors beyond 50%, optimum design with maximum output power and efficiency for GaN laser bars is currently at very low fill factors in the range of 10%. Laser bar designs ranging from 5% fill factor up to 12.5% fill factor were fabricated and investigated. Additionally, two different emitter pitches with 200μm and 400μm were compared. The design with an emitter width of 30μm and a pitch of 400μm resulted in overall best performance. Additionally, lifetime investigations of single emitters in TO-packages will be discussed. The laser diodes were tested up to 5000h duration at different conditions in operating temperatures ranging from 64°C to 96°C and output power up to 3.5W. Dominating degradation mechanism is wear-out which is accelerated by optical output power and additional thermal activation. Extrapolation of the test results in combination with an acceleration model points towards a median lifetime of up to 65.000h for 25°C operation.

More and more applications are using GaN laser diodes. Visible blue laser devices are well established light sources for converter based business projection of several thousand Lumens. Additional laser-based concepts like near-to-eye projection push device requirements above heretofore limits. In 2017, threshold currents of 10 and 20mA were reported for single mode blue and green laser, respectively. We will present a drastic reduction of laser threshold of green R&D laser samples by more than a factor of 2 down to 10mA. We also will discuss turn-on delay as a limiting factor for modulation speed and spatial resolution of flying spot projection. On the other side, new applications may occur in the near future. We will present research data on blue laser bars as a possible component for industrial applications like for materials processing. LIV characteristics are measured up to power levels of 107W. We observe power conversion efficiencies of 44% at 60W output power for our best samples.

We present the improvements in power conversion efficiency of high power multi-mode blue laser diodes. The improved device architecture shows a peak wall plug efficiency of ~44.2 % at room temperature. Furthermore, the device delivers an optical output power reaching 3.7 W at the peak efficiency. The signs of thermal roll-over at room temperature start appearing near 5 A of injection current for this particular device design. The device generates an optical output power of more than 7.5 W with overstressed current injection at room temperature. We have also evaluated the high temperature electro-optical performance. The roll-over point is shifted by approximately 1 A when the device is operating at 85°C. The optical output power reaches 4.8 W at thermal roll-over.

The range of applications of blue and green lasers is increasing from year to year. Driving factors are costs and performance. On one hand we study the characteristics of low power R&D c-plane laser structures with improved Gaussian vertical and horizontal beam profile: We present new best values for efficiencies of single mode green lasers of 10.8% at 517nm and new long wavelength data at 532nm with efficiency of 6.5%. Furthermore, we present a new R&D design of a blue single mode laser diode with a very low threshold of 8.5mA. On the other hand, recent R&D results on broad area multi-mode power designs are shown: Efficiencies of 43% at 4W optical output power are achieved. Lifetime tests as long as 10000h are presented. High reliability is reached by a new facet design.

In this paper we report recent developments on high power blue laser chips. Reduction of internal losses as well as optimized thermal management had been essential to increase optical output power. R&D samples with average performance of 3W optical output at junction temperatures of 130 degrees C are demonstrated. The chips are suitable for use in a novel multi chip housing: For the first time up to 20 blue laser chips have been packaged into one compact housing resulting in the first InGaN laser device with optical output >50W. The highly integrated package offers a unique small size. The outer dimensions of the package are 25.5mm x 35mm with an emitting surface of 16mm x 16.5mm. Therefore the complexity of optical alignment is dramatically reduced and only a single sheet multi lens array is required for beam collimation. Besides the unique technical performance the multi-die package offers significantly lower assembly costs because of the reduced complexity and assembly time. The butterfly package contains 4 bars with up to 5 multimode laser chips in series connection on each bar operating at 2.3A. The typical module wavelength is 450nm +/-10nm. At a case temperature of 50 degrees C the R&D samples achieve efficiencies of typ. 30% and an optical output power of 50W corresponding to an electrical power consumption of similar to 165W. This new technology can be used for high performance light engines of high brightness projectors.

Blue and green InGaN-based R& D laser structures on c-plane GaN substrates are investigated. We analyzed carrier injection efficiencies as well as internal quantum efficiencies up to laser threshold. The injection efficiency of the blue laser structure is measured to be 78%. The internal quantum efficiency of spontaneous emission reaches 50% at 30A/cm(2) and 32% at laser threshold. For the green laser structure we found an injection efficiency of 71%, a maximum of internal efficiency of 36% and, at laser threshold. a value of 28%. Both, recombination on defects as well as Auger effect are identified as relevant loss processes up to the laser threshold. An improved 515nm R& D single mode laser in TO56 can is presented. The optical output power of the green single mode laser reaches 250mW in continuous wave operation underneath thermal roll-over. Wall plug efficiency is as high as 9%. In the next step we investigate high power multimode lasers. The new power green R& D laser reaches maximum power of 1.25W at thermal roll-over. The current-output characteristic is nearly linear up to 0.9A and 0.6W. At higher currents thermal bending is observed. We measured a maximum wall plug efficiency of the green multimode laser of 13%. The power blue R& D laser in TO90 metal can reaches 5.5W prior to roll-over having the wall plug efficiency of 32% at 3.5W.

Blue and green laser diodes are gaining momentum in applications requiring visible sources with high density of light, spectral purity or quick modulation rates. Challenges and advances toward better efficiency and performance will be presented.

Summary form only given. Two fields for laser projection have attended big interest since several years due to the potential of high volume markets. One is the mobile projection; ideally a projection unit embedded in a mobile phone. For customer acceptance a reasonable price and high brightness of such a device are crucial. Mobile pico projectors need a brightness of 15 to 20 lumens. While red and blue laser with sufficient output power are available, direct green single mode laser with the necessary power are still under development. We report R&D results of single mode green laser with output power up to 200mW. This demonstrates that long term operation of green laser at 80mW to 100mW output power is realistic. The second field is the business projection with brightness up to several thousands of lumens. The concept here is to use blue high power laser as blue light source and also for the green light by conversion technology. The challenge is to reduce the cost of the light engine which is strongly dominated by the output power of the laser. We report R&D results of blue high power laser with an output power up to 3 watt.

A blue superluminescent LED (SLED) with power above 100mW was fabricated. These SLED shows promise for focus-free pico-projection due to reduced interference and improved image quality. We compared different straight and curved waveguide designs with and without tilted facets. Internal and mirror losses were determined by the Hakki-Paoli method.