The distinction between diode-laser array oscillators, the subject of this chapter, as well as Chaps. 6 and 7, and diode-laser amplifiers, the subject of Chap. 8, is being made because of the difference in the mode-discrimination mechanisms. Laser oscillators will have both forward and backward propagating waves that provide feedback to the active region in the optical cavity; whereas laser
... [Show full abstract] amplifiers are injected with an external-traveling wave that determines the modal properties. Some or all elements of a laser-array oscillator are mutually coupled; however in amplifier arrays the coupling is predominantly unidirectional, with the direction being determined by the propagation direction of the dominant traveling wave, which typically originates from a single-mode oscillator section.