- Hollow-core fiber guides light through air for faster transmission than glass
- Microsoft-backed researchers claim record-low signal loss in new fiber design
- Ultra-thin glass membranes reduce energy loss and maintain strong data signals
Microsoft-backed researchers have unveiled a new design for hollow-core fiber that promises record-low signal loss and faster transmission speeds.
Unlike conventional solid-core optical fibers, which guide light through glass, this approach channels light through air, allowing it to travel closer to its theoretical maximum speed.
Earlier hollow-core designs suffered excessive signal weakening, making them impractical, but the latest refinement uses ultra-thin glass membranes to maintain the signal while reducing energy loss.
Building on past trials and new breakthroughs
This work builds on the hollow-core fiber (HCF) cables previously trialed by Lumenisity with UK telco BT before Microsoft acquired the company.
The team, still linked to the University of Southampton and now backed by substantial Microsoft funding, claims its design can outperform conventional optical fibers in both signal loss and bandwidth.
Its refinement of the “double nested antiresonant nodeless hollow core fiber” approach uses thin glass membranes to help guide the 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 beaten conventional fiber in this key metric.
Conventional solid-core optical fibers already achieve a minimum loss of 0.14 decibels per kilometer.
First-generation hollow designs struggled to get below 1 dB km−1, a level that would have required extensive amplification.
The idea of hollow-core fiber has been discussed for decades, largely because of the theoretical benefits of sending light through air rather than glass.
Light travels through glass at around 200 million meters per second, while it moves through air at roughly 300 million meters per second.
The researchers claim that their design supports transmission speeds up to 45% faster than today’s solid-core fibers.
With further refinement, they suggest it could eventually deliver bandwidths between five and ten times wider.
Such improvements could prove useful in applications where delays are costly, from AI tools requiring rapid data transfer to mobile networks needing lower latency.
Francesco Poletti, who co-founded Lumenisity before Microsoft acquired it, said this is “one of the most noteworthy improvements in waveguided optical technology for the past 40 years” and “a potential revolution in optical communications.”
Even if the performance gains hold, there will be issues with global standardization for wider adoption, and Poletti believes that data center operators may not gain access for another five years.
This announcement comes in the wake of similar research from Chinese groups, whose slightly thicker membrane structures may allow cheaper production.
However, those methods could reduce bandwidth compared with the Microsoft-backed design.
Whether one approach dominates may depend on manufacturing realities rather than laboratory results.
Via The Register
