Fabry-Perot interferometer tunes external-cavity high-power laser diode

Fabry-Perot interferometer tunes external-cavity high-power laser diode

Researchers have created a miniaturized tunable laser diode by combining a high-power semiconductor laser with an electrostatically tunable, micromachined Fabry-Perot interferometer in a very short cavity. Researchers from the University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ) and VTT Electronics (Espoo, Finland) made the device from a 980-nm single-quantum-well edge-emitting high-power laser diode, butt-coupled to an interferometer with a fixed mirror and a mirror that could be moved by applying a voltage. Optical feedback from the extremely short external cavity formed by hybridization of the laser and micro-optomechanical device allowed stable and repeatable tuning over 4 nm with tens of milliwatts of output power. The researchers note that an advantage of their device was its construction from commercially available components. The ability to tune a laser-diode source is helpful in spectroscopic applications and in wavelength-division multiplexing, as well as in compensating for the effect of aging of the diode and variations in temperature. Contact Yakov Sidorin at [email protected].