Toptica Photonics Ag

Oesterreichische Banknoten-und Sicherheitsdruck Gmbh

Thomas Heine

Frank Lison

Rainer Heidemann

Anselm Deninger

Thomas Kern

The invention relates to a laser light source for generating narrow-band laser radiation with high coherence, comprising a laser diode (), which forms an internal resonator (), and an external resonator () coupled to the internal resonator (). The object of the invention is to improve a laser source of the kind such that it generates narrow-band and coherent laser radiation with high output power and at the same time with high long-term stability. Furthermore, the laser light source is to be produced in a cost-effective manner. The object is achieved by the invention in that the laser diode () runs in an operating mode in which multimode laser radiation is generated, comprising a plurality of spectrally neighboring resonance modes () of the external resonator (). The resonance modes are selected by adapting the spectral characteristics of the external () and internal () resonators.

Laser light source

A tunable diode laser system with external resonator in Littrow or Littman configuration has an optical lattice on which the light beam from a laser diode is diffracted, a support element to hold the lattice or to hold a mirror, which reflects the light diffracted by the lattice, and an actuator to change the position of the lattice or the mirror. The tunable diode laser system enables a reliable mode-hop-free tuning and furthermore is easy and economical to realize by having the support element include a carrier, on which the lattice or the mirror is arranged, and a base body, while the actuator acts on the carrier and rests against the base body. The carrier is connected to the base body via linkages, such that a linear deflection of the actuator is transformed into a rotation of the carrier in the plane of the light beam, while the center of rotation lies outside the base body.

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Vienna, Austria

Thomas Heine