Abstract

Recent developments of solid-state laser materials have brought us remarkable progress in both continuous tuning width and reliability in the operation of tunable lasers. In contrast, the means of tuning itself, however, remains almost unchanged. Performance and quality of individual dispersive elements used in the laser cavity, such as gratings and Eatons, have been surely improved much, but reproducibility and scanning rate 'of oscillating wavelengths were still determined by mechanical stability of rotating mounts holding such dispersive elements. Electronic tuning methods, which were first demonstrated by D. J. Taylor et al. using dye lasers¹ were attractive although cavity realignment was required for 78-nm tuning. For solid-state lasers, Zhang et al. reported a cw Cr:LiSAF laser tuned electronically with a liquid-crystal variable retarder.² However, this technique is available for a quite low output laser because of the very small damage threshold of the liquid crystal.

© 1996 Optical Society of America