The common Littrow configuration (see Figure 2a) contains a collimating lens and a diffraction grating as the end mirror. The first-order diffracted beam provides optical feedback to the laser diode chip, which has an anti-reflection coating on the right-hand side. The emission wavelength can be tuned by rotating the diffraction grating. A disadvantage is that this also changes the direction of the output beam, which is inconvenient for many applications.
In the Littman–Metcalf configuration ([2], Figure 2b), the grating orientation is fixed, and an additional mirror is used to reflect the first-order beam back to the laser diode. The wavelength can be tuned by rotating that mirror. This configuration offers a fixed direction of the output beam, and also tends to exhibit a smaller linewidth, as the wavelength selectivity is stronger. (The wavelength-dependent diffraction occurs twice instead of once per resonator round trip.) A disadvantage is that the zero-order reflection of the beam reflected by the tuning mirror is lost, so that the output power is lower than that for a Littrow laser.