An external-cavity semiconductor laser was built by using a semiconductor laser, collimating cylindrical column lens for fast axis beam and a volume Bragg grating (VBG) as a feedback element to get semiconductor lasers wavelength locked to the Bragg wavelength of the VBG. Its spectral characteristics varied with pump current, heat-sink temperature and different beam collimation optics were measured experimentally. The dependence of the spectral stabilization on gain spectrum of the laser and the parameters of the external cavity were analyzed. The results indicated that good wavelength stabilization could be obtained when a collimating cylindrical lens with diameter of 0.4 mm was used. In the case semiconductor lasers wavelength was measured to be locked at the Bragg wavelength of VBG in the driving current range from 0.5 A to 1.5 A when the heat-sink temperature kept at 30 ℃, and in the temperature range between 20 ℃ and 25 ℃ when the driving current applied at 1.5 A. Compared with spectra of the semiconductor laser at free running, it means that wavelength stabilization can be obtained when difference between the VBG peak and the laser wavelength at free running is smaller than 2.6 nm. The experiment showed also that wavelength stabilization became degraded when the difference increased to larger than 4.8 nm.