Patent ID: 8885679

Claim:
A laser comprising: an output port to output an optical signal; a resonant optical cavity; a gain medium included in the cavity to amplify the optical signal; a feedback component configured to detect a phase or wavelength change of the optical signal resulting from a temperature change of the laser; and a switch included in the optical cavity to select one of a plurality of different optical cavity lengths for the optical signal, wherein the plurality of different optical cavity lengths comprise: a first optical cavity length; and a second configurable optical cavity length configurable to shift the phase of the optical signal in response to detecting a phase or wavelength change of the optical signal, the second optical cavity length formed from a plurality of optical couplers and one or more phase shifting elements; wherein the switch to select the first optical cavity length in response to detecting at least one of the phase shifting elements is at a minimum or maximum phase shifting limit, and to select the second configurable optical cavity length subsequent to resetting the at least one phase shifting element away from its respective phase shifting limit or otherwise.