Modulatable lasers for systems applications

We report on the development and proving of a rugged, wide bandwidth modulatable laser of relatively low cost. Conventional laser modulation systems employ external electrooptic (EO) or acoustooptic (AO) modulators.1,2 In the He–Ne case de modulation has been used. In applications such as laser beam recording the EO and AO modulators suffer various shortcomings, the principles of which are high cost, sensitivity to alignment, and imperfect extinction. Current modulation of the He–Ne laser is power-limited, bandwidth-limited, and can result in reduced tube life.