Semiconductor lasers with a continuous tuning range above 100 nm in the nearest IR spectral region

We have developed two new types of lasers based on quantum-confined semiconductor optical amplifiers with an acousto-optic tunable filter in an external fibre ring cavity. The lasers offer continuous wavelength tuning ranges from 780 to 885 and from 880 to 1010 nm, 20 mW of cw output power, and a tuning rate up to 10⁴ nm s^-1 at an instantaneous spectral linewidth less than 0.1 nm.