Wavelength stabilisation of a DFB laser diode using measurement of junction voltage

A. Asmari; J. Hodgkinson; E. Chehura; S. E. Staines; R. P. Tatam

doi:10.1117/12.2052449

1 May 2014 Wavelength stabilisation of a DFB laser diode using measurement of junction voltage

A. Asmari, J. Hodgkinson, E. Chehura, S. E. Staines, R. P. Tatam

Proceedings Volume 9135, Laser Sources and Applications II; 91351A (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2052449
Event: SPIE Photonics Europe, 2014, Brussels, Belgium

Abstract

Laser diode wavelength stability is vital for applications such as spectroscopy and data communication, and the emitted wavelength is a function of temperature. In a conventional system, the laser diode temperature is controlled using a Peltier element with a temperature-sensing thermistor, the latter placed at a short distance from the laser diode chip. Despite the use of good thermal design and a case, a change in ambient temperature may cause a change to internal thermal gradients, resulting in a systematic error in the laser diode wavelength. In this paper we describe a novel system to measure the temperature of the laser diode junction via measurement of the junction voltage. The method has been applied to a 1651 nm DFB laser diode for use in tunable diode laser spectroscopy (TDLS) of methane. The wavelength stability of both thermistor- and voltage- control systems are compared over a period of 30 minutes and with different ambient temperatures. Over 30 min at constant ambient temperature, thermistor control provided a precision of ± 0.4 pm (40 MHz) and junction voltage control gave a similar ± 0.6 pm (70 MHz). For an ambient temperature change of 20°C, conventional thermistor control suffered a wavelength change of 76 pm (8.4 GHz), whereas junction voltage control reduced this to 0.6 pm (70 MHz), at or below the level of long-term wavelength precision.

Citation Download Citation

A. Asmari, J. Hodgkinson, E. Chehura, S. E. Staines, and R. P. Tatam "Wavelength stabilisation of a DFB laser diode using measurement of junction voltage", Proc. SPIE 9135, Laser Sources and Applications II, 91351A (1 May 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2052449

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