Double-Side Pumped Membrane External-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers (MECSELs): Towards a "Solid-State Laser"-Like Gain Pump Configuration

In MECSELs [1], a laser-active region solely is sandwiched between two heat spreaders and used in transmission mode to avoid the need of monolithically integrated distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) typically used in conventional vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers [2]. An additionally benefit is the possibility of two-side cooling as the active region without DBR can be embedded between two heat spreaders. A first successful implementation of semiconductor membrane laser, also called DBR-free semiconductor disk laser [3] was investigated, with the laser-active semiconductor membrane bonded onto a single intra-cavity (IC) heat spreader. Yang et al. recently demonstrated the first silicon carbide (SiC) MECSEL emitting approximately at 1037 nm [4].