An active
gain region sandwiched between a 100% reflective bottom Bragg mirror and an intermediate partially reflecting Bragg mirror is formed on a lower surface of a supporting substrate, to thereby provide the first (“active”)
resonator cavity of a high power coupled cavity surface emitting
laser device. The
reflectivity of the intermediate mirror is kept low enough so that
laser oscillation within the active
gain region will not occur. The substrate is entirely outside the active cavity but is contained within a second (“passive”)
resonator cavity defined by the intermediate mirror and a partially reflecting output mirror, where it is subjected to only a fraction of the
light intensity that is circulating in the
gain region. In one embodiment, non-linear optical material inside each passive cavity of an array converts an IR fundamental
wavelength of each
laser device to a corresponding visible
harmonic wavelength, and the external output cavity mirror comprises a
Volume Bragg grating (VBG) or other similar optical component that is substantially reflective at the
fundamental frequency and substantially transmissive at the
harmonic frequency. The VBG used in an array of such devices may be either flat, which simplifies registration and alignment during manufacture, or may be configured to narrow the IR spectrum fed back into the active
resonant cavity and to shape the spatial mode distribution inside the cavity, thereby reducing the size of the mode and compensating for any deformations in the
semiconductor array.