A method for characterizing a
resonator element (102) is provided, the method comprising the steps of providing
laser light having a tunable carrier frequency and
coupling at least a first portion of the
laser light into a
resonator element (102) having a plurality of carrier resonances (3000) for the carrier frequency of the
laser light, wherein adjacent carrier resonances (3000) are spaced apart from one another within a spectral range by a
free spectral range (FSR). The method further includes modulating the intensity and / or phase of the portion of the
laser light coupled into the
resonator element (102) with a first modulation frequency (1001) and a second modulation frequency (1002) to generate, for each carrier
resonance (3000), at least two
sideband resonances (3001) spaced from the carrier
resonance (3000) by the first modulation frequency (1001) and at least two
sideband resonances (3002) spaced from the carrier
resonance (3000) by the second modulation frequency (1002), wherein the first modulation frequency (1001) and the second modulation frequency (1002) are integer multiples of the
free spectral range and are different from each other. The method further includes tuning the carrier frequency of the
laser light at a predetermined tuning speed and measuring the intensity of the
laser light transmitted and / or reflected by the resonator element (102) while tuning the carrier frequency. Furthermore, the method includes measuring a tuning time elapsed in tuning the carrier frequency across four adjacent
sideband resonances (3001, 3002), the tuning time corresponding to the time required to change the tunable carrier frequency from a value corresponding to the first of the four sideband resonances to the last.The method further includes determining the spacing between multiple carrier resonances (3000) within the spectral range using the measured intensity of the laser light transmitted and / or reflected by the resonator element (102), the first modulation frequency (1001), the second modulation frequency (1002), and the tuning time measured when tuning the carrier frequency across four adjacent sideband resonances (3001, 3002).