Novel high brightness diode laser source

Summary form only given. High brightness of laser diode sources are enabling for materials processing and diode pumped solid state (DPSS) applications, notably pumping Yb and other rare earth dopants. Laser diodes and bars are intrinsically very bright, but much of the brightness is lost between the diode and the target due to high divergence and asymmetry of the beam, and the difficulties in shaping the light. Recently, approaches have been shown which preserve much more of the intrinsic brightness of the laser diode.