General Precautions

1. Special wavelength diodes and especially diodes in the red are much, much more susceptible to damage than standard infrared diodes.

2. Please look through these comments and think about how you are employing the diodes to make sure you are doing everything possible to get a long lifetime.
We want you to have a success using these products.

3. Keep the diodes clean. They should not be operated in an environment where dust particles in the air can reach the active region (output facet) of the diode.

4. Keep the output facet (which emits light) dry. If you store the unit in a high humidity, the optical coatings can be damaged and render the diode useless.

5. Operating the laser diode at a temperature lower than recommended will usually slightly increase the output power (higher efficiency) and improve lifetime.

6. Operating the laser diode at a temperature higher than recommended will increase the threshold current and decrease the slope efficiency.

7. Laser diodes need to be operated with an approved power supply/driver or they may be damaged and/or destroyed quickly.
Off-the-shelf drivers can deliver a high spike of current at turn-on, and they can deliver a very short duration reverse biasing when the unit is turned off.
Either of these will damage and/or destroy the diode laser.

8. The power supply/driver should be current-regulated and specifically designed for laser diodes.
The power supply should create no surges or spikes, no reverse voltages and should not have ringing.
Many poorly designed power supplies have voltage transients during turn-on, turn-off, or in the case of power failure.

9. Never make the connection to the laser diode with the power supply voltage on.
Most laser diode power supplies have provision to disable the supply and short the output to allow for connection of the diode.