Portable battery-operated 10-W diode laser system

Applied Optronics Corp. has designed and built a portable rechargeable battery operated 10 watt air cooled diode laser system with a small physical size that could be run cw. Heat dissipation, reliability, portability, power consumption, and survivability were important considerations that were incorporated in the system design. This novel design approach relies on individual 980 nm lasers, each mounted on its own miniature heatsink, and each coupled to a single fiber. After all fibers are coupled to the individual laser diodes, the fibers are combined together into a compact bundle 600 micrometers in diameter. The individual diodes are mounted in a package just slightly larger than a cigarette package. The lasers are connected in series. This design concept is in contrast to the established approach of coupling a linear array of emitting elements into a single fiber using optics. The low current required by the series lasers allow the module to be run on rechargeable batteries. The module has an electrical to `optical out of the fiber' efficiency of 25%. This high efficiency allows prolonged use from the battery pack. The module can be run for short periods of time without any additional heatsinking. This is due to the heat dissipation of the package, and the 980 nm lasers' ability to lase at temperatures above 100 degree(s)C.