Patent ID: 7187704

Claim:
A method of defining a three-mirror laser having a laser cavity and an external cavity, the laser cavity comprising a first mirror and a second mirror, and the external cavity comprising the second mirror and a third mirror, the method comprising: specifying a precursor single-cavity laser having a high reflectivity mirror of power reflectivity R 1 , an effective mirror of power reflectivity R max , and a length L 1 ; establishing a length L 2 of the external cavity; establishing Γ for the external cavity; and calculating a power reflectivity R 2 for the second mirror and a power reflectivity R 3 for the third mirror from the Γ and the power reflectivity R max where R max is the net reflectivity of R 2 and R 3 when the reflectivities of R 2 and R 3 are in-phase; wherein the three-mirror laser is defined by the values of L 1 , L 2 , R 1 , R 2 and R 3 .