HESP lasers are conductively cooled. They are typically mounted to a metal heat sink. A fan and heat sink or a water cooled baseplate may also be used to remove heat.

A good method for monitoring the laser's internal temperature is to look at the pump current pulse width. Specifically, this pulse width should not exceed 3 milliseconds. You'll notice that the pump pulse width will increase as the laser heats up. This is due to the loss of efficiency. Once the pump pulse width gets beyond 3mS, the efficiency of the laser drops dramatically and the pump pulse width will rise quickly - indicating an overheated condition. Please do not operate the laser if the pump current pulse width exceeds 3mS.

We suggest the use of a Tektronix model # A622 probe. The probe should be located between the driver and the laser. You can clip on a section of the red wire anywhere in the laser cable.

When you purchase a DPSS laser, we include complimentary technical support for all of your laser driver needs. Our engineers have extensive experience helping customers get their project up and running quickly and reliably.

Whether you need miniaturization, high efficiency, wide temperature range, Bluetooth® wireless communication or all of the above, our engineering staff is available to support your project’s design and integration requirements.

Previous work includes a 20 g, 47 mm x 33 mm x 15 mm high performance driver with -45 ° to +85 °C operating temperature range, advanced I/O and laser protection. This driver provides precise 100 A square pulses of current with typical I/O efficiency of 95 percent and a wide 4.5 V to 38 Vdc input voltage range. Advanced input current limiting allows for reliable state-of-the-art battery applications.

Other projects include a Bluetooth®-compatible, miniature driver optimized for the entire family of L3Harris DPSS lasers. The driver provides 100 A current pulses with typical I/O efficiency of 92 percent and works with Android phones and tablets running version 2.0 (Éclair) or later.