Patent ID: 8391328

Claim:
Apparatus comprising: a plurality of diode-laser bars positioned one above the other to form a diode-laser bar stack, with at least one of the diode-laser bars having a peak-emission wavelength that is significantly different from the peak-emission wavelength of at least one of the others; and wherein the diode-laser bar stack is arranged such that each of the diode-laser bars can be separately powered independent of the others and wherein at least some of the plurality of diode-laser bars have a different peak-emission wavelength at a given temperature, with the peak-emission wavelengths being directly dependent on the diode-laser bar temperature, and wherein the peak-emission wavelengths are selected such that as the temperature of the diode-laser bar stack increases through a predetermined range at least one of the diode laser bars will have a peak-emission wavelength falling within a predetermined absorption band in the absorption spectrum of a selected gain-medium.