Fiber optic cables have transformed how information is transmitted, enabling high-speed connections that power the modern internet. Now a group of researchers have developed a hollow fiber optic cable that can carry over 1,000 times more information across a broad range of wave lengths while also reducing the amount of light lost in the process.
Photonics and materials-science researcher at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom and co-author of a paper published in Nature Photonics explaining the innovation, Francesco Poletti, says of the design: “We really think this could be transformative.”
The “transformative” new fiber optic cable
Hollow fiber optic cables are not new and are applied to niche applications, like connecting multiple computing units in data centers. Light can travel 45% faster through hollow, air-filled glass tubes than regular solid fiber optic cables.
Furthermore, solid fiber optic cables lose half the light they carry roughly every 10 miles, and are only efficient at the infrared ‘telecom wavelengths’ of around 1.5 micrometers.
This new design more than doubles the distance at which light can travel before half of it is lost, meaning that stations used to boost and re-transmit signals could be spaced farther apart, thus saving money. “If new technology comes along and says you can skip one building every two or three, that’s a very significant cost saving,” Poletti says.
Also, these new glass ‘straws’, besides carrying over 1,000 times more power, can transport a broad spectrum of wavelengths, including single-photon pulses of the visible spectrum. These are typically used by quantum-communication systems that enable ultra-secure networks making the development “very interesting,” said Tracy Northup.
Rod Van Meter, a quantum network engineer at Keio University in Tokyo told Scientific American that “if the new fiber can be manufactured and installed easily and proves to be durable, the result might be a faster, better classical Internet.”
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