Diode laser device with cooling and operation monitoring

Diode laser device comprising:

• at least one laser diode,
• a power supply for the laser diode,
• a cooling device including a heat sink with the laser diode disposed thereon,
• a coolant supply for allowing a coolant to flow through the heat sink,
• a temperature sensor for detecting a temperature of the coolant exiting the heat sink, and
• an operation monitoring device, the operation monitoring device detecting an electrically derived quantity representing the power supplied to the laser diode,
• said operation monitoring device computing the difference between the detected electrically derived quantity and a thermally derived quantity indicative of a difference in temperature between coolant entering and coolant exiting from the heat sink,
• wherein the computed difference between the electrically and thermally derived quantities is indicative of an optical output power of the diode laser device.

Diode laser device comprising:

• at least one laser diode,
• a power supply for the laser diode,
• cooling device including a heat sink with the laser diode disposed thereon,
• a coolant supply for allowing a coolant to flow through the heat sink,
• at least one temperature sensor for detecting a temperature difference in the coolant flowing through the heat sink, and
• an operation monitoring device, the operation monitoring device detecting an electrical quantity representing the power supplied to the laser diode,
• said operation monitoring device using the detected electrical quantity and a thermal quantity indicative of said temperature difference, in order to determine an optical output power for determining proper operation of the diode laser device.