Bar Diodes: What are they?

[DigiTan]

We were just doing some lectures briefly involving something called a bar diode recently. I didn't get many details on them, but we did get to see a few up close. They looked sort of like little glass tubes and appearantly they're used in a few high-intensity light applications (laser diodes maybe?) but it's real hard finding data on them.

I googled up a few sites, but it was mostly brochures and industry talk. Does anybody know a good site for info on these bar diodes?

 

[hjames]

Laser diode bars are arrays of laser diode chips mounted to a big heatsink, often attached to forced cooling. Sometimes the assemblies have optics and focus the output into fiber optic lines.

The glass tubes part doesn't make sense - what was the topic of the lecture?

Was digging around the web, I've never heard of the "AL081C60W" types before - is this similar to what you saw?
http://www.roithner-laser.com/htoe.html

 

[DigiTan]

I have a couple shots of a defunt assembly. The are two of these devices in each picture with 9 rods on one assembly and 12 on the other. I'm uncertain if the rods are for producing or maybe focusing the light. The details at the time were really vague.

 

[hjames]

Well, this is what 2D laser stack looks like...
http://www.ldai.com/linear.htm

Do you have a magnifying glass? I have no idea of what that is...