Indian Journal of Pure & Applied Physics

Vol. 44, November 2006, pp. 801-804

Laser power meter: A simple optoelectronic set-up

D Choudhury, M Devi & A K Barbara
Department of Physics, Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam 781 014
Received 16 December 2005; revised 8 May 2006; accepted 2 August 2006
The development and working of an optoelectronic set-up have been described and the reliability of this system for use
as a laser power meter mainly for CW operation has been examined and adopted it as a field model. Subsequently, its
performance in measurement of pulsed lasers in limited cases is also presented.
Keywords: Optical detectors, Laser power, Optoelectronic
IPC Code: H01L

1 Introduction black material is taken and at one end of the cylinder

Optical detectors or sensors are now-a-days widely
used in laboratory experiments as well as in
commercial applications1,2. The function of such
sensors are to measure the intensity of an incoming
radiation for retrieving information from the received
beam and for that purpose a number of devices
starting from vacuum photo diode, silicon photodiode,
photocell to MCT detector are used depending on the
applications3,4.
The aim of this paper is to examine reliability of a
simple optoelectronic system developed for use as a
laser power meter mainly for CW operation and then
to adopt it as a field model. We will subsequently
record its performance in measurement of pulsed
lasers in limited cases.
2 Experimental Details
Here, the unknown optical power faithfully
translated by a detector into an electrical signal is
amplified, processed and calibrated with a standard
laser power meter. The calibrated information is then
logged in a computer for ready reference, after this
process, the system works as a laser power meter.
Block diagram of the system configuration is shown
in Fig. 1. The laser sources of Fig. 1 are He-Ne lasers
and light emitting diode at λ= 632.8 nm with different
output powers. The output of each source was further
varied by a bank of neutral density attenuators for
setting the radiation intensity to different desired
levels. The energy is then allowed to strike the
detector surface through an input port, which limits
the beam to a fixed area as well as shields out ambient
illumination from the optical detector. For this
purpose a cylinder of 15 cm length coated inside with
an LDR, the optical detector, is placed. A diaphragm
with input port of 19 sq mm cross-section is kept
within the cylinder at a distance of 3 cm from the
LDR. Ambient light entering the tube will be almost
entirely absorbed on the walls of the cylinder and at
the surface of the black diaphragm as it passes
through it. The assembly thus allows the laser beam
with little background noise radiation to pass through
the cylinder and strike the detector.
Our preference of LDR which is Light Dependant
Resistor that changes its resistance based on the light
energy falling on the active track, to a phototransistor
in the choice of detectors is on the consideration of
saturation level, which is less for the former. We have
selected a low cost easily available LDR, the response
of which measured from 470 to 632 nm using
appropriate filters, shows peak spectral response at
550 nm and its output at 632.8 nm (where our basic
observation lies) falls within 70% of the peak value.
Therefore, the detector offers satisfactory uniform
response over our selected range of wavelength. It is
also essential to ascertain accuracy in our
measurement, which might suffer changes due to
modifications in LDR response if any, with changes
in background temperature. For this purpose, we
examine sensitivity of LDR by controlling
background temperature from 17 to 33°C, a range
where we want to confine our observation as a first
approach. Fig. 2 that displays this observed LDR
response with temperature indicates that the output is
constant in the entire temperature range of our
observation. There are also reports showing that LDR
can operate in a wide temperature range5.
802 INDIAN J PURE & APPL PHYS, VOL 44, NOVEMBER 2006
Fig. 1⎯Basic system configuration
Fig. 2⎯Response of LDR output towards temperature
The system calibration is done at a certain
temperature which we take at 28°C as a first case,
though we have later observed that results hold good
from temperature 33°C to as low as 17°C. However,
for system calibration, we maintain the background
temperature at a constant level. It is also noted that
power dissipation of LDR remains constant within the
defined temperature range. The reproducibility factor
was checked periodically for duration of eight months
covering an entire season from August 2005 to March
2006. The output signal from the LDR is fed to an
amplifier with variable gains before allowing it to
pass through a buffer. All voltages of the system are
carefully stabilized for keeping the intensity as well as
system gain fluctuations at a minimum.
The amplified electrical signal is then converted into
digital form by an AD converter (DAS-12/125) having
12-bit resolution. The number of input channels for the
data logger and AD converter are 16 single ended and
8 fully differential, where maximum input voltages can
be ± 20 V (power off) and ± 30 V (power on). Analog
input accuracy shows sampling as 12 bits and sampling
rate as 0.0002328 Hz Min. to 125 kHz Max. The basic
building parameters of the data logger and AD
converter are shown in Fig. 1. The output from AD
converter, averaged for 50 samples @ 5 Hz is
processed and stored in a computer which is the LDR
output voltage developed across a standard resistance–
emf pack, in response to a certain amount of received
light energy.
Primary system calibration in terms of power is
made with a standard power meter from Ophir (AN/2),
which uses a thermopile absorber head with maximum
power range of 30 W and sampling rate of 15 Hz with
14-bit resolution. For the calibration, we generate laser
radiation from a commercial source and allow a certain
amount of radiation intensity to pass through
appropriate attenuator placed in the transmission path
to fall on the detector and electrical output is recorded
at the data logger. For the same radiation intensity, the
standard power meter simultaneously measures the
power at the field of view of the LDR. The thermal
head of the optical power meter being sensitive to heat
radiation, the entire calibration is made in a closeted
 CHOUDHURY et al.: LASER POWER METER 803

environment. This process is repeated for a number of

known laser sources but of different output power.
From these observations, data logger output obtained
from our system is associated with laser power by
plotting curves between data logger output voltage
and laser power as shown in Fig. 3. Here, we have
drawn three sets of best fit calibration curves, one for
power less than 0.10 mW with maximum standard
deviation of 6.68 per cent; other two are for 0.10 to
0.66 mW and 0.91 to 3.71 mW power range, with
their maximum standard deviations of 2.21 and 0.31
per cent, respectively. In many applications, as it is
essential to know the radiation intensity in terms of
energy, we further calibrate our system in terms of
energy by using a Lux meter, capable of measuring up
to 300 Lux in five different scales. The energy output
in terms of Lux is translated into power and relation,
is shown in Fig. 4.
A software program is made for easy translation of
data logger output to corresponding laser power when
our system receives an unknown radiation. The
software is so made that it toggles by itself to log on
to the appropriate power range that is, to less than
0.10 mW, 0.10 to 0.66 mW or 1 to 3.71 mW
depending on the input and the output is displayed
automatically in the computer screen in terms of
power. The corresponding uncertainties for the above
three range are 6, 35 and 58 µW, respectively. As a
test of reliability of the system calibration, we have
taken different laser sources of unknown power. Our
system output displayed in terms of power is then
compared with the corresponding readings of the

Fig. 3⎯Best fit calibration line for laser power a) less than 0.10
mW, b) 0.10 to 0.66 mW and c) 0.91 to 3.71 mW range. The
standard deviations corresponding to the fitted curves are also Fig. 4⎯Best fit calibration line for laser power (mW) in terms of
shown Lux
804 INDIAN J PURE & APPL PHYS, VOL 44, NOVEMBER 2006
Table 1⎯Unknown laser power from the calibration curve
Laser Wavelength Data logger Laser power Laser power
source (nm) output (v) from our from meter
system (mW) (mW)
Nd-YAG 532.0 1.75 0.019 0.017
He-Ne 632.8 2.81 0.522 0.530
Diode 632.8 2.91 1.399 1.410
standard laser power meter. A few cases are shown in
Table 1 establishing its reliability. Table 1 also
includes power measurement for a pulse laser of 532
nm to record our system response to such a source.
This Nd-YAG device is a pulsed laser of 10 ns
duration with repetition frequency of 1.5 kHz. Our
system reads its output power as 0.019 mW and
power meter shows this value as 0.017 mW, thereby
justifying our observation that this system may be
used for pulsed laser power measurement. Now, we
measure the output of the Nd-YAG in terms of energy
(average) by using a Lux meter. The energy output
obtained is 7.4 Lux, which reads as 0.022 mW (Fig
4). This value as it falls within our uncertainty limit;
we have taken our measured energy output as correct.
To use the system as field model, we checked its
immunity from interference of external light radiation
noise and electrical signals during the process of
calibration. We have exposed the set-up to artificial
radiation from 100 kHz to 512 MHz. No interference
from such radiation is noticed. The system is then
moved to a relatively uncontrolled environment and
calibration is confirmed measuring laser radiation of
unknown intensity from number of unknown sources,
indicating that the model can be used as a field modei.
However, careful screening of background intensity is
required and as certain background intensity will
produce its own initial zero level value resulting
erroneous output, we have to set the zero level of the
instrument before taking any measurement. In our
case, the output at the final end is always adjusted to
0.27 V and this is the reference level for background
intensity and unknown radiation intensities must be
measured with respect to this reference level.
3 Results and Discussion
The main advantages of this optoelectronic set-up
are: (a) this is a very low cost device capable of
measuring laser power in the range 7 µW to 3.71 mW.
(b) It can be used for CW as well as in Pulse mode
radiation, though our measurement in this mode is
limited to 1.5 kHz only. (c) it can be also used as a
field instrument in a relatively wide range of
temperature. (d) the system performance is
satisfactory over a cycle of season. However, the
main drawbacks are: (a) the range of the system is
confined to 0.007 to 3.71 mW (b) and can be used
only for a limited spectrum of frequencies.
Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge with thanks the
LASTEC, DRDO and UGC (SAP) for their financial
support for carrying out this work.
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