Tunable light source using a liquid-crystal Fabry-Perot interferometer

Abstract
A tunable light source with a liquid-crystal Fabry-Perot interferometer (LC-FPI) tuning element that emits a laser beam with a tuning range of 41 nm has been constructed. Incorporating a multiple quantum well (MQW) laser diode with a phase control (PC) section enables the selection of almost all external modes. Stable single-mode emission is obtained for the region, except where the slope of the lasing wavelength versus applied voltage to the liquid crystal is quite large.