Bit-Error-Rate Monitoring for Active Wavelength Control of Resonant Modulators

A new method uses bit-error-rate measurements to acquire and stabilize the wavelength of an optical resonant modulator to an optical carrier wave. This is attractive because it uses the pertinent metric, bit error rate, to optimize the modulator resonance independent of other system variations, meaning it can compensate for system aging and drift even in the heater element itself.