Tuning Properties of External Cavity Violet Semiconductor Laser

A tunable grating-coupled external cavity (EC) laser is realized by employing a GaN-based laser diode as the gain device. A tuning range of 4.47 nm from 403.82 to 408.29 nm is achieved. Detailed investigations reveal that the injection current strongly influences the performance of the EC laser. Below the free-running lasing threshold, EC laser works stably. While above the free-running lasing threshold, a Fabry–Pérot (F-P) resonance peak in the emission spectrum and a smooth kink in the output power-injection current characteristic curve are observed, suggesting the competition between the inner F-P cavity resonance and EC resonance. Furthermore, the tuning range is found to be asymmetric and occurs predominantly on the longer wavelength side. This is interpreted in terms of the asymmetric gain distribution of GaN-based quantum well material.