Title :
A compact external cavity wavelength tunable laser without an intracavity etalon
Author :
Sato, K. ; De Merlier, J. ; Mizutani, K. ; Sudo, S. ; Watanabe, S. ; Tsuruoka, K. ; Naniwae, K. ; Kudo, K.
Author_Institution :
Syst. Devices Res. Labs., NEC Corp., Shiga
fDate :
5/1/2006 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
We propose a novel external cavity wavelength tunable laser (ECTL) configuration without an etalon inside the cavity. ECTL consists only of a semiconductor optical amplifier with an integrated phase section, and a liquid crystal tunable mirror. We successfully demonstrated excellent performances of the ECTL with fiber coupled output power of more than 50 mW over a 40-nm tuning range, sidemode suppression ratio of better than 45 dB, relative intensity noise of better than -148 dB/Hz, and linewidth of narrower than 2.3 MHz
Keywords :
laser cavity resonators; laser mirrors; laser noise; laser tuning; liquid crystal devices; semiconductor optical amplifiers; spectral line narrowing; external cavity laser; fiber coupled output power; integrated phase section; intracavity etalon-free laser; liquid crystal tunable mirror; narrow spectral linewidth; relative intensity noise; semiconductor optical amplifier; sidemode suppression ratio; wavelength tunable laser; Fiber lasers; Laser tuning; Liquid crystals; Mirrors; Optical tuning; Power amplifiers; Power generation; Semiconductor lasers; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Tunable circuits and devices; External cavity wavelength tunable laser (ECTL); liquid crystal; semiconductor laser; tunable mirror;
Journal_Title :
Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/LPT.2006.874717
