Seems like I have some homework to do. I knew of temperature tuning wavelengths but not feedback tuning. Any pictures of the setup along with info on how it works?
To understand this one have to know some basics about diode lasers. A typical diode made from GaN (~ 380nm to about 530nm) has a typical gain profile that is ~ 20nm -30nm wide. That means, that this diode can theoretically operate anywhere in this region.
One has to know, that the diode front and rear facet create a resonator, and only multiple integers of the wavelength that match the resonator length can lase, if their total gain is higher than their losses. For a typical blue laser diode (I consider only single-mode diodes for for simplicity reasons) the resonator length is about 0.05nm. Here is spectrum of a 488nm diode:
Every resonator mode that you can see in the spectrum have a total gain higher than 1. Since the gain profile of the diode is not flat only modes in the center of the profile start to lase and no more free electrons are left for the other modes in the gain spectrum.
Temperature tuning shifts the whole gain profile of a diode and therefore the center of the profile. This is the reason why temperature tuning changes the center wavelength of the laser diode.
Increasing the current increases the charge carrier density and thereby the refractive index in the diode. This also increases the wavelength of diode in addition to the extra heat generated by the current if the diode is not properly temperature stabilized.
Wavelength tuning by optical feedback works in a very different way. Here not the gain profile is shifted as a whole, but the diode is forced by lasing on only one mode (one peak from the upper figure). This is usually accomplished by using an optical element, that reflects only a narrow wavelength region. The most common one is an optical grating.
If some of the power of the first order reflection from the grating is reflected directly back into the diode, the gain for a mode at this specific wavelength is increased. With sufficient feedback from the grating this mode has now enough gain to deplete the complete diode junction alone. Then the diode operates in one longitudinal (frequency) mode.
By tuning the grating, the reflected wavelength can be changed and thus the wavelength of the laser diode. Even a mode that was not lasing at all in the free running diode (like the one around 486,5nm in the upper figure) can lase now, since their gain is greatly increased compared to the gain of modes in the free running case.
Here is a short video with a simple setup consisting of a diode and a grating
to give you an idea how this works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4w-zhnGqCk&t=149s
Of coarse there are many various setups and realizations depending on the goal of such a tunable diode laser. I tried to scratch on the surface of this topic to give you an idea. Feel free to ask for more information. I will present my setup with some data at a later stage.
Singlemode