Fooling with a laser. I need to hook up some fancy controllers. Looks like a thermistor in there with currently broken leads. I wanted to see how much heat a 400-500 mw would generate, and I guess its about that. I found the peltier element cooling backwards, but then I thought its probably trying to heat up the laser which I had disconnected. I should try it with the thermistor hooked up. Got some Newport equipment to hook, and aparently there is no other feedback photodiode. That was my main concern at this point.
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Well I wanted to get comments on laser opperating temperature. I know another unit warmed up the laser before it turned on. I had to first check out the wiring to see what kind of configuration it had. I really don'e want to take the laser assembly apart because not sure how it assembled. I was tring to get some kind of part number off the laser. The cheap units have too much noise. The end result is to get a brighter laser later with possible slightly different wavelength and use these controllers. Right now this is just a test.
But your question and even your "clarifiation" is along the lines of: "I have a 4 wheeled vehicle that doesn't quit run right. What temperature should the flux capacitor run at." :)
Type of laser, make/model, pumping method, power output, wavelength, CW, pulsed, Q-switched, etc.
I kind of assume it's CW, 400-500 mW output, "SS" to me means "solid state", but that covers a lot of ground!
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Cheap lasers will have a single TEC for the entire laser.
Better ones will have one TEC for the pump diode and another for the laser cavity.
Can you identify the type of pump diode? One thing you do need to know is the maximum current the pump diode can safely handle.
What is the rated output of the laser head? NOT the CDRH sticker value, but the spec'd value?
But then, it's really a matter of searching for the "sweet" spot by adjusting the temperatures of the pump diode and laser cavity if it has two TECs. If it only has one, then you're much more limited and simply have to find a compromise where you get maximum power at a given pump current.
The safe temperature range is between 10degC and 30degC for the pump diode, maybe going to 40degC for the cavity. The best performance should be somewhere within that range.
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Allright, I'm still trying to figure what TEC stands for. But, you have supplied some good info to start. I still do not want to take the assembly apart to see the parts. I don't know if it glued or screwed. The lens is screwed and glued, but I don't want to fool with the focus right now. I don't know if I can measure the laser current, but I think I will try, and get all the current parameters before hooking up the other controllers.
The opperating temperature of the current laser is above room temperature.
Its working with the new controllers. I didn't need to know much other than what the previous settings were. If I were selecting a new diode, then I should know a lot more.
You can safely adjust the temperature to see if that gets more output power but you should NOT increase the diode current beyond what it is now.
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Doesn't matter. Unless you know for sure that the pump diode can take higher current, you may end up with an output of exactly 0.0 mW.
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