A Diode Drive Mechanism for 'Always Resonant' Pumping with Laser Diodes without Wavelength Locking

摘要

We demonstrate a simple to implement, drive scheme for standard laser diode modules (without wavelength locking) used for pumping rare-earth doped lasers and amplifiers. This scheme enables an "always-resonant" mode of operation. The deleterious effect accompanying power/current tuning - drifts of emission wavelength of the diodes from the peak absorption band of the gain medium is completely avoided. In this work, we demonstrate the drive mechanism and its performance in a fiber amplifier. We anticipate this scheme to have significant impact in enabling a cost-effective solution which achieves an optimal balance of efficiency, nonlinearity and reliability in laser systems.