Method of making optical chirped grating with an instrinsically chirped grating and external gradient

摘要

A method for making a chirped grating device (10) capable of a broad bandwith for optical communication systems is disclosed. An intrinsically-chirped optical grating (12) is externally strained to alter the range of chirping. The external strain may be induced by a gradient-generating body (14) bonded onto the length of the fiber grating that may be latchably strained so that the grating characteristics may be changed or tuned while avoiding use of a continuous power supply. Various optical networking applications using such dispersion compensating devices are also disclosed.;The gradient may comprise a temperature gradient, a strain gradient (e.g., mechanically or magnetically-induced), or any other gradient capable of imposing an external perturbation on the fiber.