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Updated: May 23, 2026

Construction and Characterization of External Cavity Diode Lasers for Atomic Physics
Published on: April 24, 2014
Spectral linewidth narrowing and tunable two-color laser operation of two diode laser arrays
1Center for Engineering Science Advanced Research, Computer Science and Mathematics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA. liub@ornl.gov
Abstract:
We propose and implement a common external cavity to narrow spectral linewidth of two broad-area laser diode arrays (LDAs) and align their center wavelengths. The locked center wavelength of two LDAs can be tuned in the range of ~10 nm by tuning the tilted angle of the diffraction grating. The output beams of two LDAs are spatially overlapped through the polarization beam splitter of the common external cavity, and the total output power equals the power of two LDAs. The center wavelength of each LDA can be independently tuned by shifting the corresponding fast-axis collimation lens. As a result, the high-power two-color LDA operation is demonstrated with the tunable wavelength difference of up to 2 nm (~1 THz).

