Patent ID: 8588263
Filing Date: 2013-11-19
Classification: H01S

Abstract:
1. An apparatus comprising: an optically-pumped optical-fiber gain medium operatively coupled to receive a first pulsed seed signal and amplify the seed signal to form amplified laser pulses; an optical pump source operatively coupled to the optical-fiber gain medium to deliver optical pump energy that is stored in the optical-fiber gain medium and builds up over time; a distributed Bragg-reflector (DBR) laser-diode optical-seed source operably coupled to deliver the pulsed seed signal to the gain medium; and an electrical-drive-current source operatively coupled to drive a pulsed current signal to the DBR laser diode, which outputs the first pulsed laser seed signal based on the pulsed current signal, wherein the electrical-drive-current source is operated to deliver a peak-drive-current value to operate the DBR laser diode during the pulses at a level above lasing threshold but below a level that causes mode hopping.