CAPT 3030: Practical Application of Diode Lasers
Tom Mahony, Instructor

This course is designed for scientists, engineers, technicians and program managers who are involved in a product, system or factory application involving the use of diode lasers. The course will emphasis the issues of making laser diodes work effectively for your application. Only background semiconductor theory will be covered. The difference in operating characteristics of single mode, multimode and stripped laser configurations will be discussed. Three aspects of operating the laser will be covered; optical, electronic, and thermal. The optics session addresses how to effectively shape the beam for your application; how to predict diffraction limited divergence and spot size and what variations in performance to expect from assembly to assembly. The benefits and disadvantages of fiber coupling are discussed. Also covered are the effects of temperature, power level and optical feedback on wavelength stability. In the electronics session, appropriate methodologies in controlling laser power and wavelength stability are covered, including current control mode and automatic power mode. Impedance matching considerations in high-speed modulation is addressed along with bandwidth limitation issues associated with thermally managing the laser are covered including passive and active temperature control. The critical relationship between diode temperature and operational lifetime is reviewed. Finally, a brief tutorial on an electro-static discharge control program is provided to cover some basic handling principles for these devices applicable to either a developmental or manufacturing environment.

The course will have 4 experiments to illustrate the principles presented in the lecture.

1.Collimating a laser and observing the beam shape and divergence

2.Observation of Mode Hops in Constant Current and APC mode.

3.Effects of temperature on power and wavelength stability.

4.Effect of optical feedback on power and wavelength stability.

About the Instructor
Tom Mahony is the Executive Director of CAPT. Since 1984, he has been heavily involved in diode laser OEM applications in the medical, industrial, scientific and reprographics markets. Over this period, over 100,000 laser assemblies have been shipped into hundreds of specialty applications. He co-founded Boulder Electro-Optics, which is now operating as the Electro-Optics Division of Melles Griot located in Boulder, Colorado.

REGISTER NOW CLASS SIZE IS LIMITED!!!

Contact Tom Mahony @ 303 365-8410 or Fax 303 365-8411, Register on the web at URL: www.captcenter.org

Return to CAPT Chronological Course Schedule (2002)

Return to TOP

Register now!