Patent ID: 8831050

Claim:
A tunable laser, comprising: a) a laser resonant cavity comprising first and second total reflection cavity mirrors within a laser oscillating spectral range; b) a laser gain medium disposed in the laser resonant cavity and carrying out laser oscillation in a specified laser wavelength range; c) an intra-cavity collimating lens; d) an acousto-optic tunable filter disposed in the laser resonant cavity, light beam emitted from the laser gain medium being collimated by the intra-cavity collimating lens and then input into the acousto-optic tunable filter at a Bragg angle; e) a device exciting sound waves in an acousto-optic crystal and comprising a sound wave energy transducer bonded on a selected surface of the crystal; the acousto-optic tunable filter, the two reflection minors and the laser gain medium being disposed in such a manner that laser oscillation is formed in the laser resonant cavity only by the first order diffracted beam of the acousto-optic tunable filter; f) a radio frequency signal source providing radio frequency energy for the energy transducer and adjusting the oscillation wavelength of the laser resonant cavity by changing radio signal frequency; g) an optical phase modulator disposed between the intra-cavity collimating lens and the acousto-optic crystal; h) an optical etalon disposed between the optical phase modulator and the laser gain medium; i) a wavelength locker disposed at one of zero-order diffraction optical paths of intra-cavity light; j) a pigtailed collimator coupling laser output light to an optical fiber; k) a pumping source exciting the laser gain medium; l) a phase modulator driver for driving the optical phase modulator; and m) a signal control processing circuit.