Bath hollow out fibres

Researchers at Bath University have discovered a way of speeding up the production of hollow-core optical fibres from around a week to a single day.

According to the university, initial tests also show that the procedure, described in the journal Optics Express, creates a fibre superior in virtually every respect to previous versions of the technology.

By narrowing the wall of glass around the large central hole by 100nm, the range of wavelengths that could be transmitted is broadened. This was done by omitting some of the most difficult steps in the production procedure, reducing the time taken and therefore ultimately the cost.

‘This is a major improvement in the development of hollow-core fibre technology,’ said Professor Jonathon Knight, of the centre for photonics and photonic materials at Bath University. ‘The fact that light has to travel through glass limits optical fibres in many ways. For example, the glass can be damaged if there is too much light. Also, the glass causes short pulses of light to spread out in a blurring effect that makes them less well defined.