André Bösel^1*, Jörg EHLBECK¹, Nicole König², Klaus-Dieter SALEWSKI², and Jürgen Röpcke¹

¹Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology, Felix-Hausdorff-Straβe 2, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
²Institute of Physics, E.-M.-Arndt-University Greifswald, Felix-Hausdorff-Straβe 6, 17489 Greifswald, Germany

(Received May 31, 2012; Accepted July 10, 2012)

For an enhanced tuning of an external-cavity Littrow diode laser at 670 nm a new approach based on the frequency controlling of intra-cavity acousto-optic modulators (AOM) has been developed and tested. Using a method called “mode shaking” a nearly continuously laser tuning over a frequency range of 186 GHz (0.279 nm) within a time interval of 20 ms has been achieved. A further method called “far laser frequency jump” allows frequency changes of up to 1080 GHz (1.6 nm) between two spectral regions of the diode laser emission range within about 50 μs.

Key words: diode laser, tunable laser, external cavity diode laser, visible laser, acousto-optic device

^*E-mail address: andre.boesel@inp-greifswald.de