Tunable Laser Optics, 2nd Edition

7

Narrow-Linewidth Tunable Laser Oscillators

7.1 Introduction

In this chapter, the basics of interference, the uncertainty principle, polarization, and beam propagation are applied to the design, architecture, and engineering of narrow-linewidth tunable lasers. The principles discussed here apply in general to tunable lasers and are not limited by the type or class of gain media. Thus, the gain media assumed here are generic broadly tunable media in the gas, liquid, or solid state.

A narrow-linewidth tunable laser oscillator is defined as a source of highly coherent continuously tunable laser emission. That is, a laser source that emits highly directional radiation of an extremely pure color. Pure emission in the visible spectrum is defined ...