Patent 7982939 was granted and assigned to Coherent (operating system) on July, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Apparatus for steering a beam of radiation includes a thermally anisotropic element configured such that the shape of the optical element can be varied by varying the temperature of the element. The beam is reflected from or transmitted through the element in a manner such that the direction of the beam on leaving the element can be varied by the change of shape resulting from the temperature variation.