Tuning fidelity of acoustooptically controlled external-cavity semiconductor lasers

External cavity semiconductor lasers in extended- and ring-cavity configurations were tuned with chirp-compensating pairs of acoustooptic filters. Nanometer-size tuning gaps observed by previous workers were eliminated. The tuning range was approximately 80 nm for the extended cavity and at least 55 nm for the ring cavity. The root-mean-square tuning error was 0.036 nm for the extended cavity and 0.018 nm for the ring cavity. The output could be swept up to 35 mm in as little as 10 msec, limited by the radio-frequency generator. Transmittance measurements made on spare acoustooptic filters using the extended-cavity laser as a swept source were in good agreement with quasi-static measurements made using a grating-tuned laser