Provided is a tunable external cavity laser diode using a variable optical
deflector wherein the variable optical deflector, in which a refractive
index varies according to an electrical signal, is arranged in a
triangular shape between a concave diffraction grating and a reflective
mirror. Since a resonant frequency is changed using the electrical signal
rather than the mechanical movement, the stable operation and continuous
high-speed tenability may be enabled. In addition, when the tunable
external cavity laser diode according to the present invention is
implemented in an InP/InGaAsP/InP slab waveguide, a variable time
determined by the carrier lifetime may be reduced to several nanoseconds
or less, the miniaturization is enabled, and the manufacturing costs are
significantly reduced due to the process simplification. Moreover, when
the concave diffraction grating is designed based on a silica (or
polymer) based slab waveguide, the fabrication may be performed even by a
lithography process having low resolution, thereby enhancing
reproducibility and uniformity of the diffraction grating, and
accordingly reducing the manufacturing costs.