A high-power picosecond near-infrared laser transmitter module

A compact laser diode based transmitter was designed and tested for laser radar and various laboratory applications. Single optical pulses with a peak power of up to 200 W, 23–65 ps pulse duration, and a repetition rate of up to 50 kHz were measured. Transient mode spectral filtering suppressed after pulsing modes by a factor of 104–105 with respect to the peak power. A control module was developed which provided a jitter value between electrical triggering and the optical pulses as low as 14 ps. Averaging of 103 events allows 1.5 ps stability between the triggering and the optical pulses to be achieved within a delay range from 5 to 250 ns.