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DIRECTED ENERGY PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY

Abstract: 25-Systems-018

UNCLASSIFIED, PUBLIC RELEASE

High Power PCSELs and High Speed PCSLMs for Chip-Scale DE Systems

Chip-scale DE can lead to the miniaturization of DE weapons onto microchips or integrated circuits. It aims to create smaller, more efficient, and potentially more powerful DE lasers for various applications, including military and space defense. Recently, photonic crystal surface emitting lasers (PCSELs) have emerged as a disruptive and promising semiconductor diode laser technology for high power and high brightness compact laser applications. By incorporating photonic crystal cavities inside the laser cavity design, single mode diode lasers can be realized with power levels of kW or more. A 50W PCSEL has been demonstrated by a group in Japan with brightness of 1 GWsr-1cm-2.[1] Here we report recent progress on PCSEL technology, including both single aperture high power PCSELs and passively coupled coherent PCSEL arrays. [2-4] By proper lattice selection and cavity design, PCSEL powers can scale from a few watts to 10’s and 100’s W. We will discuss the design, fabrication, and characterization of these PCSELs and PCSEL arrays. The potentials of power and brightness scaling will also be discussed towards kW and MW levels. This can lead to applications in HELs, in diode pumps, and in high power high speed diode lasers for space applications.
Additionally, we will report the advances of high speed photonic crystal spatial light modulators (PCSLMs) with 2pi phase tuning capabilities at speed of 0.2 GHz level and more, a few orders faster than the current SLM technologies. [5.6] These structures can be used for wavefront correction and beam shape controls for PCSELs and other HEL laser sources.
The work is supported by US JDETO/ARO W911NF2410005 and NSF-2154109.

References
[1] M. Yoshida et al., "High-brightness scalable continuous-wave single-mode photonic-crystal laser," Nature, vol. 618, no. 7966, pp. 727-732, 2023/06/01 2023, doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06059-8.
[2] M. Pan, C. Gautam, Y. Chen, T. Rotter, G. Balakrishnan, and W. Zhou, “Recent Advances in Photonic Crystal Surface Emitting Lasers”, IEEE J. Select. Topic. Quantum. Electron. 31, 1502408 (2025).
[3] W. Zhou and M. Pan, “The Future of Photonic Crystal Surface Emitting Lasers (Perspective)”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 123, 140501 (2023).
[4] C. Gautam, M. Pan, Y. Chen, T. J. Rotter, G. Balakrishnan, and W. Zhou, "Laterally coupled photonic crystal surface emitting laser arrays," Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 135, no. 19, p. 193108, 2024, doi: 10.1063/5.0205483.
[5] M. Pan, Z. Liu, A. Kalapala, Y. Chen, Y. Sun, and W. Zhou, "Complete 2π phase control by photonic crystal slabs," Opt. Express 29, 40795-40804 (2021).

UNCLASSIFIED, PUBLIC RELEASE