How to Perform Laser Diode L-I-V Testing

+ Femto / Picoammeters and Electrometers

Synchronize L-I-V Measurements

A laser diode light-current-voltage (L-I-V) measurement requires a controlled drive-current sweep, a simultaneous measurement of laser diode voltage, and a photodiode detector path that measures optical output as the laser current changes. The laser diode is driven with a current sweep while its voltage is monitored. A photodiode is held at a constant 0.1 V and its current is measured with a fixed range. The example uses a 0 to 50 mA laser-diode current sweep with 201 points.

The measurement instruments are synchronized so that each completed laser-diode current step produces a trigger for the photodiode-current measurement. In the example, the current step period is 500 µs, with 100 µs measurement delay and 0.01 power-line-cycle aperture settings used for the short measurement interval. The results are displayed on the instruments and can be exported as comma-separated values (CSV) for plotting laser-diode voltage and photodiode current against laser-diode drive current.

Synchronized Laser Diode L-I-V Solution

Perform the laser diode test by sweeping drive current while measuring laser diode voltage and photodiode current at synchronized trigger points. The B2911C supplies the laser diode current using a linear sweep from 0 to 50 mA with 201 points and measures the laser diode voltage. The B2985C/87C applies a constant 0.1 V to the photodiode and measures its current with a fixed 2 mA range. The B2911C sends a trigger from its digital I/O port through the N1294A-031 GPIO-BNC Trigger Adapter to the B2985C/87C trigger input after each current step. The resulting laser diode voltage and photodiode current measurements can be viewed on the instruments and exported as CSV files for detailed analysis and L-I-V plotting.

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See Block Diagram of Synchronized Laser Diode L-I-V Solution

How to Perform Laser Diode L-I-V Testing Block Diagram

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