Method and system for continuous sweeping of a tunable laser

A method of stitching two or more regions to one another so as to form a usable tuning data set for a tunable laser comprising the steps of:

• a. creating a lookup table of regions that have continuous tuning over a first frequency region with a frequency overlap on either side with the previous and next continuous tuning regions;
• b. asserting a control signal to denote a continuous region when a resonance peak is detected in the frequency region;
• c. de-asserting the control signal and jumping to the next continuous tuning region when a next resonance peak is found within this continuous tuning region;
• and
• d. repeating the above steps (b-c) until a sufficient range of wavelength has been swept.

A system adapted to provide a set of continuous tuning regions from a discontinuously tuned laser, the system comprising:

• a wavelength reference having at least first and second resonance peaks associated therewith;
• a tunable laser;
• means for sweeping the laser across a pre-determined wavelength range of the wavelength reference;
• and
• means for defining, within the laser sweep, one or more regions of continuous tuning operation of the laser, each of the regions corresponding to a response of the laser between adjacent resonance peaks of the wavelength reference.