This paper further explores the capability and versatility of Barlase in establishing deeper understanding of an emitter in a laser bar. There is communication between an emitter and the substrate on which it is mounted and this is linked to the degradation process that occurs in lasers. It is well known that various factors come into play in the operation of individual emitters and full laser bars (L-I characteristics, threshold, efficiency, etc.) but one of the most important is the effect of introducing defects through non-radiative recombination centres. Barlase is therefore used to investigate the effect of defects based on the Arrhenius equation, where the quantum well trap generation rate is activated by the local quantum well temperature. The trap generation rate is multiplied by the aging time and the trap density is updated at each aging step. Barlase allows a better understanding of how current competition, temperature and the level of defects affect the output power and the degradation rate of the bar. The significance of this study is to investigate the effect of defects through non-radiative recombination centres in a single emitter laser bar. This was done in order to establish a fair idea of how single emitters will operate in the context of a multi-emitter laser bar through the introduction of non-radiative recombination centres.