High power laser diodes, laser diode modules and their applications

High power laser diodes and especially high power laser diode modules made enormous progress in the last few years. Different aspects of high power laser diodes are treated starting from general description of high power laser diodes and their mounting techniques, characterising the electro-optical behaviour of single laser bars and finally presenting beamshaping optics for the collimation of large modules. The later technique allows for symmetrical focal spots in the kilowatt range with a beam quality of about 170 mm*mrad. Different aspects of current applications of high power laser diodes are presented.