Compact external cavity diode laser for industrial analysis

Fabry-Perot (FP) laser diodes are generally compact, reliable and low cost laser sources for a wide range of scientific and technical applications [1]. However, emission characteristics of FP laser diodes are often far from ideal, especially tuning range and sidemodesuppression are often to small, and thus many applications are limited to the use of relatively expensive distributed feedback (DFB) laser diodes with their - as competed with external cavity diode laser - low tuning range and low power. External cavity diode laser, in which antireflection coated FP-laser diodes are utilized, can provide an alternative with a high tuning range, small linewidth and high power.