The ongoing demand for increased communication capacity, driven by advancements in cloud services like AI, necessitates enhancements in optical communication systems’ performance. By reducing the transmission loss of optical fiber, the need for optical repeaters diminishes, and transmission distances can be extended, thus addressing this demand. Consequently, extensive research and development efforts have been directed towards achieving lower transmission losses.
Since the introduction of the low-loss pure-silica-core optical fiber Z fiber™ in 1988, we have spearheaded the advancement of low-loss optical fiber technologies and products. In 2021, we achieved mass production of the ultra-low-loss optical fiber Z-PLUS Fiber™ 150, boasting a transmission loss of 0.14 dB/km.
Building upon this progress, we have further refined low-loss silica glass fiber technology, achieving a transmission loss of 0.1397 dB/km at a wavelength of 1566 nm. This represents an improvement over our previous milestone of 0.1419 dB/km set in 2017. Our commitment to pushing the boundaries of technology persists, as we strive to provide cutting-edge solutions that enhance the performance of long-distance optical communication systems, including submarine cables and terrestrial backbone networks.
This groundbreaking work has been accepted as a regular paper at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) 2024 in San Diego. We look forward to presenting our paper titled “Record Low Loss Optical Fiber With 0.1397 dB/km” on March 26, 2024.
