Tuning characteristics of a tunable-single-frequency external-cavity laser

Author

Chuang, Z.M. ; Cohen, D.A. ; Coldren, Larry A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., California Univ., Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Volume

26

Issue

7

fYear

1990

fDate

7/1/1990 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1200

Lastpage

1205

Abstract

The lasing characteristics of a tunable-single-frequency laser operated in conjunction with a tunable external cavity are investigated. The effect of phase error in the external cavity on the lasing frequency, linewidth, and output power is calculated by deriving the characteristic equation for the FP cavity as a traveling amplifier with an effective mirror concept. The analysis suggests that the diode laser and the external cavity may be successfully tuned open-loop if the feedback strength is appropriate and the tuning nonlinearities in the active and passive cavities are not too severe. This is demonstrated by maintaining a linewidth of 4 MHz while tuning continuously over 34 GHz

Keywords

laser cavity resonators; laser theory; laser tuning; semiconductor junction lasers; spectral line breadth; FP cavity; Fabry Perot cavity; active cavities; diode laser; effective mirror concept; feedback strength; laser theory; lasing frequency; lasing linewidth; lasing output power; open-loop; passive cavities; phase error; traveling amplifier; tunable external cavity; tunable-single-frequency external-cavity laser; tuning nonlinearities; Laser feedback; Laser modes; Laser stability; Laser theory; Laser transitions; Laser tuning; Optical control; Optical feedback; Power lasers; Tunable circuits and devices;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.59659

Filename

59659