Analysis of the thermal management system for a pump laser

• We have compared the performance of two alternative temperature controllers.
• The pulse-width modulation design was compared with a variable-voltage design.
• A significant difference in the duration of the transient response was observed.
• The variable-voltage design offers a reduced steady-state power consumption.

In this paper we report on a theoretical and experimental study of the steady-state response, transient response and efficiency of a thermal management system. We compare two alternative designs based on thermo-electric modules, the role of which is to control the temperature of the laser-diode pumping system for advanced fiber lasers. The performances of a standard pulse-width modulation controller and a variable-voltage controller were tested on a reference thermal management system. An experimental facility and a numerical model were set up, with the system response to various load conditions measured as well as numerically simulated. The results show that the design of the thermal management system based on the variable-voltage controller offers a significant performance advantage over the pulse-width modulation design.