Self-heating mitigation in an acoustically tunable distributed feedback laser

A laser assembly, comprising:

• a semiconductor laser with an active semiconductor region for emitting an optical signal in response to a drive current that is applied to the active semiconductor region;
• a drive circuit for generating the drive current in accordance with an input signal and applying the drive current to the active semiconductor region;
• a controllable oscillator for generating a periodic electric signal that is applied to the semiconductor laser to generate a surface acoustic wave in or near the active semiconductor region such that a diffraction grating structure is created in or near the active semiconductor region by the surface acoustic wave, an emission wavelength of the active semiconductor region being determined by a periodicity of the diffraction grating structure, wherein the controllable oscillator is configured to set a frequency of the periodic electric signal in accordance with a control signal;
• and
• a control circuit for generating the control signal for the controllable oscillator in such a manner that a shift of the emission wavelength away from a predetermined emission wavelength that results from heating of the active semiconductor region during emission of the optical signal is at least partially compensated by an opposite shift of the emission wavelength that results from a change of the periodicity of the diffraction grating structure in or near the active semiconductor region.