Photoluminescence microscopy of mirror facets of broad area laser diodes

Broad area laser diodes are excellent sources of light for high output power applications. The main factors limiting the output power, expected lifetime, and the reliability of these devices are thermal management and avoiding optical damage. The degradation effects are most pronounced at the laser facets. Therefore these regions are the most critical parts of the device. The study into the causes of degradation of laser diodes appears to be very important from fundamental and applied points of view. In this work we use photoluminescence microscopy (PLM) to investigate possible modes of failure of broad area laser diodes operated at high power