Abstract: In an external cavity wavelength tunable laser device including an external cavity (20) which includes a semiconductor optical amplifier (2) and performs laser oscillation operation by feeding back external light, a wavelength tunable mirror (7) having at least a single peak reflection spectrum characteristic within a laser wavelength tuning range is placed on one end of the external cavity (20), and a Fabry Perot mode interval determined by the effective length of the external cavity (20) is not less than 1/10 times and not more than 10 times the reflection band full width half maximum of the wavelength tunable mirror (7).

Abstract: In an external cavity wavelength tunable laser device including an external cavity (20) which includes a semiconductor optical amplifier (2) and performs laser oscillation operation by feeding back external light, a wavelength tunable mirror (7) having at least a single peak reflection spectrum characteristic within a laser wavelength tuning range is placed on one end of the external cavity (20), and a Fabry Perot mode interval determined by the effective length of the external cavity (20) is not less than 1/10 times and not more than 10 times the reflection band full width half maximum of the wavelength tunable mirror (7).

Abstract: In an external cavity wavelength tunable laser device including an external cavity (20) which includes a semiconductor optical amplifier (2) and performs laser oscillation operation by feeding back external light, a wavelength tunable mirror (7) having at least a single-peak reflection spectrum characteristic within a laser wavelength tuning range is placed on one end of the external cavity (20), and a Fabry-Perot mode interval determined by the effective length of the external cavity (20) is not less than 1/10 times and not more than 10 times the reflection band full width half maximum of the wavelength tunable mirror (7).

Abstract: The reflectance of a semiconductor optical amplifier (1) on the side where an external cavity is formed is 0.1% at most. The finesse value obtained by dividing the period of the transmission characteristic of the wavelength selection filter (3) by the half value width of the transmission characteristic is 4 or more and 25 or less. Even when the reflectance of a cavity side end face (1bb) of the semiconductor optical amplifier (1) is about 0.1%, a wavelength accuracy of ±1.5 GHz can be achieved by setting the finesse to 4 or more. In addition, a wavelength accuracy of about ±0.5 GHz can be achieved by setting the finesse to 8 or more. In order to suppress insertion loss, it is preferable to set the finesse of the FP etalon to 25 or less. This makes it possible to implement an external cavity wavelength tunable laser with high wavelength accuracy.

Abstract: In an external cavity wavelength tunable laser device including an external cavity (20) which includes a semiconductor optical amplifier (2) and performs laser oscillation operation by feeding back external light, a wavelength tunable mirror (7) having at least a single-peak reflection spectrum characteristic within a laser wavelength tuning range is placed on one end of the external cavity (20), and a Fabry-Perot mode interval determined by the effective length of the external cavity (20) is not less than 1/10 times and not more than 10 times the reflection band full width half maximum of the wavelength tunable mirror (7).

Abstract: Only the light at an overlapping wavelength of the transmission characteristics of at least two wavelength selecting filters is looped, and at least one of the wavelength selecting filters varies a selected wavelength. Since a loss due to the optical filters is small and there is not a loss caused by a highly reflecting film, the output of an external-resonator variable-wavelength laser can be increased. Optical circuit component (8) divides light input from external device (1) into at least two ports. Loop waveguide (11) interconnects at least ports (9, 10) divided by optical circuit component (8) in the form of a loop. At least two first wavelength selecting filters (12, 13) are inserted in series in a path of loop waveguide (11), and have periodic transmission characteristics on a frequency axis which are different from each other. At least one of first wavelength selecting filters (12, 13) varies the selected wavelength.