Grating stabilized 0.5 W, 980 nm pump modules

Highly efficient, 0.5 W, single-mode 980 nm pump modules for erbium-doped optical amplifiers have been developed. The laser diode has been optimized to eliminate the optical kink associated with spatial mode instability thereby allowing a significant increase of the chip power. The optimized chip has a lower series and thermal resistance resulting in a more efficient operation with high reliability. The chip has been incorporated into a newly developed, highly efficient module platform. This module utilizes the industry standard 14-pin 'butterfly' format, and has optimized fiber coupling and thermal design. The combination of an excellent chip and an optimized module design has lead to single mode coupled powers in excess of 0.5 W for telecommunication applications that require high reliability.