Current distribution measurement method for high power laser diode bars - by injecting current and detecting resultant magnetic field over emitter surfaces

摘要

The method involves injecting the laser diode array (2) with an electric current (7) and detecting the magnetic field generated. For this purpose a sensor (12) is moved in steps of approximately equal spacings along each emitter surface. The injected current can be a modulated current with a small band width, a sinusoidal or a pulsed current. It can have a value from 8 up to 100 amp, pulse width of 10 ns up to 100 mu s, and frequency from 1 up to 100 kHz. The sensor can be moved in steps from 2 up to 500 mu m (preferably 5 mu m).