Patent 6856731 was granted and assigned to Lucent Technologies Inc. on February, 2005 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Wide range linear tuning of optical gratings is possible by selecting a thin film heater such that the temperature variation in heater's resistivity ρ matches the temperature variation in the heat transfer coefficient of air h. A tunable optical device, such as a fiber grating with such a grating heater, exhibits near linear tuning characteristics over a wide range of temperatures and tuning currents. The heater is useable in other heat tunable optical devices such as interferometers.