Real-time dynamic chirp measurements of optical signal

Summary form only given. A new technique is described that uses a waveguide grating router to measure time-resolved chirp in real time. The measured chirp of an externally modulated laser using this technique is very close to that using a monochromator as an optical filter. This new technique can substantially decrease the time needed to characterize the chirp of optical sources at the factory and could also be used to rapidly diagnose and optimize source chirp in experimental systems.