Controlling laser optical output signal impulse response in an optical transmitter

The impulse response of the optical output of a laser 104 of an optical transmitter 100 is adaptively adjusted in a way that ensures that the optical waveform being transmitted from the optical transmitter into the optical waveguide of an optical link has a desired waveform shape that improves the performance of the optical link. The transmitter 100 comprises an input buffer 101, a multi-tap adaptive filter circuit 110, a laser driver circuit 103 controlling a laser diode 104, a monitor photodiode 112, a high-speed amplifier 120, a configurable filter 130, an error function block 140, and an algorithm and control block 150 which adjusts the tap weights of the multi-tap filter circuit 110 based on the error value produced by the error function block 140.