Author(s)

Jianing Han, Lindsay Hutcherson, Kaori Munekane, Steven Shettlesworth

Physics Department, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA.

In this article, we report on a ring-cavity diode laser configuration, which has more features compared to the standing-wave external-cavity diode lasers. First, a transmission grating will be used, and the ring-cavity laser output will be the zero-order output from the transmission grating. Therefore, unlike the standing-wave external cavity diode lasers, the output direction of this ring-cavity laser does not depend on the laser's frequency. Second, since it is a ring-cavity laser, it can avoid the local heating caused by the antinodes of the standing-wave lasers. Moreover, because this ring-cavity will allow the laser beam to pass the transmission grating two times, it is expected that this will ultimately result in a narrower linewidth compared to the external-cavity standing-wave lasers with the same cavity length.

PACS Numbers: 07.05.Fb, 42.15.Eq, 42.55.Px

Han, J. , Hutcherson, L. , Munekane, K. and Shettlesworth, S. (2020) A Ring-Cavity Diode Laser. Journal of Modern Physics, 11, 1236-1244. doi: 10.4236/jmp.2020.118077.