Tunable External-Cavity Semiconductor Lasers
Paul Zorabedian, Photonics Technology Department Hewlett-Packard Laboratories Palo Alto, California
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 What Is an External-Cavity Laser?
A tunable external-cavity laser (ECL) (Fig. 1) comprises an optical gain medium (a laser diode with antireflection coatings on one or both facets), optics for coupling the output of the gain-medium waveguide to the free-space mode of the external cavity, one or more wavelength-selective filters, and one or more mirrors for defining an external feedback path, possibly with a piezoelectric translator (PZT) for fine tuning. The external cavity may also contain additional components such as polarization optics, beamsplitters, prisms, telescopes, ...
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