Rapid High-Precision In Situ Wavelength Calibration for Tunable Lasers Using an Athermal AWG and a PD Array

This letter presents a simple and rapid high-precision in situ calibration technique for tunable superstructure grating distributed Bragg reflector (SSG-DBR) lasers using a laser driver board with an athermal arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) and a photodetector (PD) array. The experiment demonstrates laser calibration for seven wavelength channels completed in 23 s with a precision of±0.015 nm. This letter describes the details of the system calibration method, the mode competition detection technique, and the calibration time analyses. The presented technique can also apply to other tunable lasers with suitable modification in the laser driver interfaces.