Temperature control of an optical source in free space optical communications

A method for an optical system, the method comprising:

• generating, by an optical source, a first beam of light;
• obtaining, by a temperature controller, a temperature of the optical source;
• determining, by the temperature controller, whether to perform a temperature adjustment based on the temperature;
• in response to determining to not perform the temperature adjustment, leaving, by the temperature controller, the temperature unadjusted at a target temperature;
• generating, by a modulator, a second beam of light based on the first beam of light;
• generating, by a spectrally-equalizing amplifier, a third beam of light based on the second beam of light, wherein the spectrally-equalizing amplifier spectrally equalizes a gain applied to the second beam of light;
• monitoring, by the temperature controller, a quality of a signal received by a photoreceiver for the third beam of light at different target temperatures;
• and
• at periodic iterations, changing, by the temperature controller, the target temperature to a different target temperature,
• wherein the target temperature corresponds to a distribution curve of wavelengths that align a center of the distribution curve with the gain applied by the spectrally-equalizing amplifier,
• wherein, by aligning the center of the distribution curve of the optical source with the gain applied by the spectrally-equalizing amplifier, the method increases a capacity of an amplified bandwidth and provides a shorter coherence length, thereby improving signal quality.