- The nucleus fiber guides light through the air for a faster transmission than glass
- Researchers backed by Microsoft demand a loss of record signal in a new fiber design
- Ultra thin glass membranes reduce energy loss and maintain strong data signs
Researchers backed by Microsoft have presented a new design for the hollow nucleus fiber that promises a faster transmission signal loss.
Unlike conventional solid nucleus optical fibers, which guide the light through glass, this approach channels the light through the air, which allows it to travel closer to its maximum theoretical speed.
The previous hollow core designs suffered excessive signal weakening, making them little practical, but the last refinement uses ultra thin glass membranes to maintain the signal while reducing energy loss.
Based on past and new evidence
This work is based on the hollow nucleus fiber cables (HCF) previously tested by Lumenisity with the United Kingdom Telco BT before Microsoft acquired the company.
The team, still linked to the University of Southampton and now backed by Microsoft substantial funds, states that its design can overcome conventional optical fibers both in signal loss and bandwidth.
Its refinement of the “nodocal nodocal nucleus fiber” double nested “nucleus fiber uses thin glass membranes to help guide light more effectively.
The group has reported a record-low loss of 0.091 dB km-1, which represents the first time this technology has overcome conventional fiber in this key metric.
Conventional solid nucleus optical fibers already achieve a minimum loss of 0.14 decibels per kilometer.
First generation hollow designs had trouble obtaining less than 1 dB KM-1, a level that would have required extensive amplification.
The idea of hollow nucleus fiber has been discussed for decades, in large part due to the theoretical benefits of sending light through air instead of glass.
The light travels through the glass to around 200 million meters per second, while moving through the air to approximately 300 million meters per second.
Researchers claim that their design admits transmission speeds up to 45% faster than current solid nucleus fibers.
With more refinement, they suggest that you could eventually deliver band widths between five and ten times more.
These improvements could be useful in applications where delays are expensive, from AI tools that require fast data transfer to mobile networks that need lower latency.
Francesco Poletti, who co -founded Lumbenisity before Microsoft acquired it, said this is “one of the most notable improvements in wave -guided optical technology during the last 40 years” and “a potential revolution in optical communications.”
Even if performance profits are maintained, there will be problems with global standardization for broader adoption, and Poletti believes that data centers may not get access for another five years.
This announcement occurs following similar research from Chinese groups, whose slightly thicker membrane structures can allow cheaper production.
However, these methods could reduce bandwidth compared to the design backed by Microsoft.
If a dominates approach, it can depend on manufacturing realities instead of laboratory results.
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