Abstract

External cavity laser structures offer a great deal of flexibility for phase-locking and lateral mode selection of 1- and 2-D arrays. Previous work based on spatial filtering¹ and the Talbot effect² has demonstrated external cavities as small as a few millimeters. We show that special microoptics can be designed to allow extremely small external cavity lengths. In addition, the cavity has an inherent lateral mode selection ability which can be exploited to insure fundamental mode operation. Finally, all the external cavity optics are contained in a single plane, making it possible to integrate the structure with a surface emitting laser.

© 1990 Optical Society of America