Ultra-narrow linewidth DFB-laser with optical feedback from a monolithic confocal Fabry-Perot cavity.

We present a compact, ultra-narrow-linewidth semiconductor laser based on a 780 nm distributed feedback diode laser optically self-locked to a mode of an external monolithic confocal Fabry-Perot resonator. We characterize spectral properties of the laser by measuring its frequency noise power spectral density. The white frequency noise levels at 5 Hz(2)/Hz above a Fourier frequency as small as 20 kHz. This noise level is more than five orders of magnitude smaller than the noise level of the same solitary diode laser without resonant optical feedback, and it is three orders of magnitude smaller than the noise level of a narrow linewidth, grating-based, extended-cavity diode laser. The corresponding Lorentzian linewidth of the laser with resonant optical feedback is 15.7 Hz at an output power exceeding 50 mW.