PRECISE WAVELENGTH TUNING OF A DYE-LASER USING AN ACTIVE DIFFRACTIVE OPTICAL-ELEMENT

In this work, an active, reflecting diffraction grating was developed and characterized. A grating was holographically imposed onto the surf ace of a ceramic which could be deformed via the transverse, inverse p iezoelectric effect, thus allowing active fine tuning of the grating c onstant. The tuning characteristics of this novel optical element were studied and the results compared with the linear theory of the piezoe lectric effect. To demonstrate its applicability, the grating was inst alled in a dye laser and used to effect precise tuning of the output w avelength of the laser within a range of 220 pm. The possibility of qu asi-static to high frequency operation of the system will allow this e lement to find use in a wide variety of applications, Copyright (C) 19 96 Elsevier Science Ltd.