An external-cavity tuneable laser includes a gain medium and a tuneablemirror.At least the tuneable mirror is in thermal contact, with a thermallyconductiveplatform and lays substantially horizontally thereon. The laser beam from thegain medium is directed onto the tuneable mirror, which is mountedsubstantiallyhorizontally with respect to the thermally conductive platform, by a deflectorthatdeflects the beam or a large part of it towards one of the principal surfacesof themirror. The resulting laser cavity is therefore a folded cavity. The thermallyconductive platform is preferably thermally coupled to a TEC that providesthermal control for the platform. In a preferred embodiment, the deflector isabeam splitter that deflects part of the incoming light and transmits theremainingpart. The portion of light transmitted through the beam splitter may form theoutput laser beam.
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