Charge-Line Dual-FET High-Repetition-Rate Pulsed Laser Driver
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
In this manuscript the authors have presented the results of utilizing a delay-line based pulsed current source for generating short optical pulses. There are few typographical errors that should be corrected and few comments listed below that should be taken care of before publication.
Figure captions should be more informative and the readers should be able to understand the figures without reading the main text.
What is the pulse to pulse amplitude stability? Is it affected by the pulse duration, driving current etc?
The authors mention that no long term drift was observed. Please provide a graph to support your claim.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 1 Comments
Thank you for a very positive reception of our work and very insightful feedback that have helped us to improve the paper.
The changes resulting from reviewer’s 1 feedback were highlighted in RED.
The changes resulting from reviewer’s 2 feedback were highlighted in ORANGE.
Point 1: In this manuscript the authors have presented the results of utilizing a delay-line based pulsed current source for generating short optical pulses.
Response 1: We appreciate the recognition of the underlying idea of the concept.
Point 2: There are few typographical errors that should be corrected.
Response 2: We agree. Therefore, typographical errors were tracked down and corrected.
Point 3: Figure captions should be more informative and the readers should be able to understand the figures without reading the main text.
Response 3: We have revised the figure’s captions to be more informative.
Point 4: What is the pulse to pulse amplitude stability? Is it affected by the pulse duration, driving current etc?
Response 4: We have added three specific measurements of the optical signal pulse-to-pulse stability (see page 10, figure 11). In addition, we have also performed the measurements for the modulation peak current stability measured with the resistive load (see page 10, table 3).
Point 5: The authors mention that no long term drift was observed. Please provide a graph to support your claim.
Response 5: Since the presented solution may operate for a long period of time, we have decided to extend our drift observations period to 12 h (see page 11, figure 12).
We would like to thank you again for very perceptive and insightful comments --- they’ve helped to improve the paper significantly!
Reviewer 2 Report
The draft has studied a new scheme to obtain high repetition rate pulsed laser from a laser diode. The scheme is based on FPGA and the modern FET (HEMT transistor). The authors has analyzed the scheme and also demonstrated it experimentally with a commercial laser diode to prove the high repetition and lower jitter of the pulse generation. I feel this is an interesting article. The draft is organized well and the language is fluent and precise. Therefore, I recommend the paper for publication. However, I still have several comments.
1 There are no full names for the shortens “LIDAR” and “HEMT”.
2 On the figure 5, the authors should explain the meaning of terminal D, Q, CE and so on?
3 When using the scheme for laser, I am curious about how the laser spectrum change?
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 2 Comments
Thank you for a very positive reception of our work and very insightful feedback that have helped us to improve the paper.
The changes resulting from reviewer’s 1 feedback were highlighted in RED.
The changes resulting from reviewer’s 2 feedback were highlighted in ORANGE.
Point 1: The draft has studied a new scheme to obtain high repetition rate pulsed laser from a laser diode. The scheme is based on FPGA and the modern FET (HEMT transistor). The authors has analyzed the scheme and also demonstrated it experimentally with a commercial laser diode to prove the high repetition and lower jitter of the pulse generation.
Response 1: We appreciate the recognition of the novelty of the concept as well as the implementation experiment.
Point 2: There are no full names for the shortens “LIDAR” and “HEMT”.
Response 2: We agree. Therefore, abbreviations were explained
Point 3: On the figure 5, the authors should explain the meaning of terminal D, Q, CE and so on?
Response 3: In the present version of the paper all of the acronyms used in the text and schematic diagrams were explained. Moreover, a brief description of the control signals has been provided in the text.
Point 4: When using the scheme for laser, I am curious about how the laser spectrum change?
Response 4: Since the developed system was designed as fast, low noise and versatile laser diode driver, the lasing spectrum was not the subject of our interest. However, the QCL wavelength electrical tuning and broadband emission gain switched lasers are nowadays in favour in many applications. Thus, two interesting publications have been added to the article (see references [4,5]) and some related comments have been provided.
We would like to thank you again for very perceptive and insightful comments --- they’ve helped to improve the paper significantly!
