FEBRUARY 25, 2004    
PREVIOUS OFC NEWS ANALYSIS

Hollow Fiber: No Pipe Dream

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Loss-free optical fiber may seem like a pipe dream, but it’s one that just took a big step closer to becoming a reality.

At the OFC postdeadline paper session tomorrow, U.K. startup BlazePhotonics Ltd. will present results on a hollow-core fiber with an optical loss that’s ten times better than what’s been achieved before. What’s more, BlazePhotonics says its results suggests that hollow core fiber could meet the target of having lower loss than standard transmission fiber.

“We’re getting close to breakeven,” says VP of research and development Dr. Henrick Sabert. “Now we can begin to understand the physics that take you there.”

Being better than standard transmission fiber is no mean feat. After decades of development, the loss of optical fiber has settled at a figure of around 0.2 dB per kilometer (dB/km). The very best commercially available fiber is from Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd., with a loss of just 0.151 dB/km.

Hollow-core Optical Fiber has the potential for virtually zero losses because light travels predominantly inside hollow spaces inside the fiber, rather than in glass. “Our results show that more than 99 percent of the light travels in the spaces,” Sabert contends. BlazePhotonics’ fiber has a honeycomb-like cross section, although other types have been proposed by other vendors (see Holey Fibers! for some images).

But achieving these low losses has turned out to be hard work, causing some folk to question if it is even achievable (see OmniGuide: Hollow Promises? ).

Naturally, BlazePhotonics believes that ultra-low-loss hollow fiber is a viable proposition and says its latest results point the way. The new results that it will report tomorrow are losses of 1.7 dB/km, which is a significant improvement over the previous best of 13 dB/km, which was set by Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW – message board) in 2002.
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— Pauline Rigby, Senior Editor, Light Reading

(Edited by lagunabb at 5:56 pm on Feb. 26, 2004)