Patent ID: 11916351
Assignee: ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS ON BEHALF OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Field: Optics (Instruments)
Classification: CPC H  G | IPC G  H

Claim 7:
8. A method for determining a single-frequency operating current of a diode laser, comprising:
(a) ramping up an operational current of the diode laser for a first predetermined number of steps, and measuring an associated current value indicative of optical power within the laser diode for each of the first predetermined number of steps;
(b) ramping down the operational current of the diode laser for a second predetermined number of steps, and measuring an associated current value indicative of optical power within the laser diode for each of the second predetermined number of steps;
(c) using measured data obtained in operations (a) and (b) to identify current values at which a mode hop or a multimode operation is likely to occur; and
(d) determining a contiguous range of operating currents that is devoid of identified likely mode hops or multimode regions of operation as the operating current range of the diode laser having a single-frequency output,
wherein the measured data obtained in operations (a) and (b) correspond to a first temperature value of the diode laser, and the method comprises:
prior to conducting operations (a) and (b), setting a temperature of the diode laser to the first temperature value and waiting until a temperature of the diode laser stabilizes at the first temperature value, and
upon a determination at operation (d) that the contiguous range of operating currents that is devoid of identified likely mode hops or multimode regions of operation does not span a minimum current range, setting the temperature of the diode laser to a second temperature value and upon stabilization of the laser diode temperature, repeating operations (a) to (d) at the second temperature.