Temperature-Tolerant Wavelength-Setting and -Stabilization in a Polymer-Based Tunable DBR Laser

In this paper, we present a method of self-detection of mode hops in a distributed Bragg reflector tunable laser using the voltage drop in the active section as a monitoring signal. Based on this method, a wavelength setting and stabilization algorithm that is tolerant to temperature variations is proposed. Wavelength locking for a period of more than seven days with an accuracy better than ±1.25 GHz has been achieved, meeting the ITU-T standard for 25 GHz channel spacing. Under forced changes in the operation temperature from 15° to 60°, with variations of 0.1°/s, the maximum allowed deviation of ±2.5 GHz for the ITU-T standard with 50 GHz channel spacing was kept.