I'd like to better understand the performance of this new room temperature laser. I believe you are referring to the following press release:
biz.yahoo.com
The above press release states "... at the 11th Annual Diode Laser Technology Review Conference held last week in Albuquerque, New Mexico, (SLI) presented a poster paper showing overall conversion efficiency of 56% for an 808 nm high power semiconductor diode laser operating at 25 degrees Celsius, which represents the highest efficiency ever obtained by anyone at these operating conditions."
I haven't seen the poster paper, nor have several of the conference attendees that I have contacted. One attendee responded "I believe Dan Botez (from the university of Wisconsin - Madison) claims about 65% for an slightly longer wavelength diode, and we had 56% way back in the eighties."
This peaked my interest and I found a few papers addressing this topic. One, from McDonnell Douglas, claimed 57% (R.G waters et al. Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 51, no. 17, pp. 1318-1319, Oct. 26, 1987) and the other, from Spectra Diode Labs (now SDL, Inc.), claimed 54% (D.F Welch et al., Electron. Lett., vol. 23, no. 23, pp. 1240-1241, Nov. 5, 1987). I haven't located details of Botez's work, but I recall an announcement regarding his work at 830 nm and plans for work at 810 nm. I'm sure I'll find something in the next week.
I'd like to review a copy of SLI's poster paper. I have sent an e-mail to the company asking how I can get a copy of the poster paper and I've asked whether the paper has been submitted to a technical journal. In the meantime I'll do a little more research on the published efficiency and operating conditions of 808 nm lasers from different manufacturers and research institutions. |
