Laser diode light source
AssigneeJDS Uniphase Corporation
InventorsDavid Venables, Erik Paul Zucker, Victor Rossin, Justin L. Franke, Boris Kharlamov
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Abstract
A light source including a laser diode, and a method of operating a light source including a laser diode are disclosed. A driving current of the laser diode is dithered to cause a near-field light intensity distribution at an end facet to be perturbed, thereby reducing a time-averaged local intensity of the laser light at the end facet of the laser diode. The reduced time-averaged intensity reduces a possibility of a damage of the end facet.
Claims20
A method of operating a light source comprising a first multimode laser diode, the method comprising:
- (a) providing a first dc driving current to the first multimode laser diode to cause a first end facet of the first multimode laser diode to emit a first laser light, wherein light emitted by the light source comprises the first laser light, and
- (b) dithering the first dc driving current;
- wherein a peak-to-peak amplitude of dithering of step (b) is selected to be high enough to periodically perturb a near-field light intensity distribution at the first end facet, thereby reducing a time-averaged local intensity of the first laser light at the first end facet, wherein the peak-to-peak amplitude of dithering is low enough to keep a time-domain modulation of the light emitted by the light source under 25%.
A light source comprising:
- a first multimode laser diode having a first end facet for emitting a first laser light;
- and a driver for providing a first dc driving current to the first multimode laser diode,
- the driver comprising a ditherer for dithering the first driving current at a peak-to-peak amplitude high enough to periodically perturb a near-field light intensity distribution at the first end facet, thereby reducing a time-averaged local intensity of the first laser light at the first end facet,
- wherein in operation, light emitted by the light source comprises the first laser light, wherein the peak-to-peak amplitude is low enough to keep a time-domain modulation of the light emitted by the light source under 25%.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.