Multi-wavelength tunable laser

摘要

A laser capable of generating polychromatic or white light radiation is realized by employing dispersive and reflecting elements as the ends of a simple laser resonator cavity. The dispersive element either solely or in combination with an intracavity lens is arranged such that each wavelength component of the white light radiation is amplified by a different portion of the active medium. More specifically, forced oscillation or positive feedback for each wavelength component is achieved by operating a diffraction grating in an auto-collimation configuration or through the use of a distributed bragg reflector having a spatially varying index of refraction.