Realizing high-peak-power (tens to hundreds of watts or higher) short-pulse (tens of picoseconds or less) operation in semiconductor lasers is crucial for state-of-the-art applications including eye-safe high-resolution remote sensing and non-thermal ultrafine material processing. However, it has been challenging to introduce mechanisms that enable stable high-peak-power short-pulse operation in conventional semiconductor lasers. Here, we propose photonic crystal lasers that have two-dimensionally arranged gain and loss sections to enable high-peak-power short-pulse operation in the fundamental mode while suppressing lasing in higher-order modes to avoid laser instability. On the basis of this concept, we experimentally realize a high peak power of ~20 W and a short pulse width of ~35 ps with an injection current of only 3-4 A using a 400-μm-diameter device and theoretically predict that even higher peak power (>300 W) can be achieved in a 1-mm-diameter device. Our results will contribute to the realization of next-generation laser sources for the aforementioned applications.

在半导体激光器中实现高峰值功率（数十至数百瓦或更高）短脉冲（数十皮秒或更短）操作对于最先进的应用至关重要，包括人眼安全的高分辨率遥感和非热超细材料加工。然而，在传统半导体激光器中引入能够实现稳定的高峰值功率短脉冲操作的机制一直具有挑战性。在这里，我们提出了具有二维排列的增益和损耗部分的光子晶体激光器，以实现基模中的高峰值功率短脉冲操作，同时抑制高阶模式中的激光，以避免激光不稳定性。在这个概念的基础上，我们使用直径为 400 微米的器件通过实验实现了约 20 W 的高峰值功率和约 35 ps 的短脉冲宽度，注入电流仅为 3-4 A，理论上预测更高的峰值功率（> 300 W ) 可以在 1 毫米直径的设备中实现。我们的结果将有助于实现上述应用的下一代激光源。