title: A simple readout electronics for automatic power controlled self-mixing laser diode systems.
abstract: The paper describes a simple electronic circuit to drive a laser diode for self-mixing interferometry. The network integrates a stable commercial automatic power controller and a current mirror based readout of the interferometric signal. The first prototype version of the circuit has been realized and characterized. The system allows easily performing precise interferometric measurements with no thermostatic circuitry to stabilize the laser diode temperature and an automatic control gain network to compensate emitted optical power fluctuations. To achieve this result, in the paper a specific calibration procedure to be performed is described.
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Engineering, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, via Vignolese 905, I-41100 Modena, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cattini
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rovati