A semiconductor strip laser and a semiconductor component are disclosed. In embodiments the laser includes a first semiconductor region of a first conductivity type of a semiconductor body, a second semiconductor region of a second different conductivity type of the semiconductor body, at least one active zone of the semiconductor body configured to generate laser radiation between the first and second semiconductor regions. The laser further includes a strip waveguide formed at least in the second semiconductor region and providing a one-dimensional wave guidance along a waveguide direction of the laser radiation generated in the active zone during operation, a first electric contact on the first semiconductor region, a second electric contact on the second semiconductor region and at least one heat spreader dimensionally stably connected to the semiconductor body at least up to a temperature of 220 C., and having an average thermal conductivity of at least 50 W/m.Math.K.

An optical amplifier is described. The optical amplifier (1) comprises a semiconductor disk gain medium (2) including at least one quantum well layer (9) and a pump field source (17) for generating an optical pump field (3) for the semiconductor disk gain medium. The optical amplifier acts to generate an output optical field (5) from an input optical field (4) received by the optical amplifier and arranged to be incident upon the semiconductor disk gain medium. Employing a semiconductor disk gain medium within the optical amplifier allows it to be optically pumped and thus provided for increased stability and beam quality of the output optical field while allowing for the design of optical amplifiers which can operate across a broad range of wavelengths. The optical amplifier may be employed with continuous wave or pulsed input optical fields.

In an embodiment an edge-emitting laser bar includes an AlInGaN-based semiconductor layer sequence having a contact side and an active layer, a plurality of individual emitters arranged next to each other and spaced apart from one another in a lateral transverse direction, a plurality of contact elements arranged next to each other and spaced apart from one another in the lateral transverse direction on the contact side for making electrical contact with the individual emitters, and a thermal decoupling structure in a region between two adjacent individual emitters, wherein the decoupling structure includes an electrically conductive cooling element located on the contact side and completely covering a contiguous cooling region of the contact side, wherein the cooling element is completely electrically isolated from the semiconductor layer sequence and thermally coupled to the semiconductor layer sequence along the cooling region, and wherein the cooling region has a width, measured along the lateral transverse direction, which is at least half a width of an adjacent contact region.