Patent ID: 8290005

Claim:
A method of driving a laser diode comprising the steps of: providing a laser diode that, when driven with a pulse current with an amperage that is 10 or more times higher than a threshold current amperage value of the laser diode, emits a laser beam with a first light peak and a following second light peak, the first light peak having a light intensity of at least 3 watts and a half-value width of at most 20 picoseconds, the second light peak having an energy of at least 1 nanojoule and a duration of at least 1 nanosecond; generating, by means of a pulse generator, the pulse current with the amperage that is 10 or more times higher than the threshold current amperage value of the laser diode and driving the laser diode with the pulse current such that the laser diode emits the laser beam with (a) the first light peak having the light intensity of at least 3 watts and the half-value width of at most 20 picoseconds, and (b) the following second light peak having the energy of at least 1 nanojoule and the duration of at least 1 nanosecond.