Patent ID: 6959023
Filing Date: 2005-10-25
Classification: H01S

Abstract:
1. A tunable laser comprising: (a) a laser pump; (b) a resonant optical cavity having a round trip light path, said optical cavity having an odd number of reflective surfaces and comprising: i) a gain medium responsive to pumping by said laser pump, one face of said gain medium forming a first reflective endface of the resonant optical cavity: and ii) a tuning etalon, positioned within the resonant optical cavity, said tuning etalon comprising two spaced apart mirrors having a controllable mirror-to-mirror separation distance, and forming the other reflective endface of said resonant optical cavity, so that light traveling on said round trip light path is reflected from said tuning etalon, and whereby the emission wavelength of the rain medium is determined by a selected separation distance of the etalon mirrors.