Measuring response characteristics of an optical component

An apparatus for testing an optical component comprising;

• a tunable laser for providing a tunable laser signal having a wavelength that varies with time;
• a first modulator for modulating the tunable laser signal producing a modulated laser signal defined by a frequency;
• an information signal generator for generating an information signal having an indicator that varies with the variations in wavelength of the tunable laser signal;
• a test station for receiving the modulated laser signal, and for testing the optical component therewith, providing a plurality of test information samples including an initial and a final phase measurement of the modulated laser signal taken before and after passing through the optical component, respectively, to calculate group delay measurements at various times and corresponding wavelengths;
• a correlator for correlating the plurality of test information samples with the information signal to determine the wavelength corresponding to each test information sample independent of the specific optical component.