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Towards high-capacity fibre-optic communications at the speed of light in vacuum

Towards high-capacity fibre-optic communications at the speed of light in vacuum
Towards high-capacity fibre-optic communications at the speed of light in vacuum
Wide-bandwidth signal transmission with low latency is emerging as a key requirement in a number of applications, including the development of future exaflop-scale supercomputers, financial algorithmic trading and cloud computing. Optical fibres provide unsurpassed transmission bandwidth, but light propagates 31% slower in a silica glass fibre than in vacuum, thus compromising latency. Air guidance in hollow-core fibres can reduce fibre latency very significantly. However, state-of-the-art technology cannot achieve the combined values of loss, bandwidth and mode-coupling characteristics required for high-capacity data transmission. Here, we report a fundamentally improved hollow-core photonic-bandgap fibre that provides a record combination of low loss (3.5 dB km-1) and wide bandwidth (160 nm), and use it to transmit 373 x 40 Gbit s-1 channels at a 1.54 ms km-1 faster speed than in a conventional fibre. This represents the first experimental demonstration of fibre-based wavelength division multiplexed data transmission at close to (99.7%) the speed of light in vacuum
1749-4885
279-284
Poletti, F.
9adcef99-5558-4644-96d7-ce24b5897491
Wheeler, N.V.
0fd34178-a77b-4c71-a3a6-86a1f634f1a0
Petrovich, M.N.
bfe895a0-da85-4a40-870a-2c7bfc84a4cf
Baddela, N.
1a871ff8-f95d-495b-8b91-9d6ccd209528
Numkam Fokoua, Eric
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Hayes, J.R.
a6d3acd6-d7d5-4614-970e-0e8c594e48e2
Gray, D.R.
46319dbb-26c5-487b-af42-891e7b00e14f
Li, Zhihong
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Slavík, R.
2591726a-ecc0-4d1a-8e1d-4d0fd8da8f7d
Richardson, D.J.
ebfe1ff9-d0c2-4e52-b7ae-c1b13bccdef3
Poletti, F.
9adcef99-5558-4644-96d7-ce24b5897491
Wheeler, N.V.
0fd34178-a77b-4c71-a3a6-86a1f634f1a0
Petrovich, M.N.
bfe895a0-da85-4a40-870a-2c7bfc84a4cf
Baddela, N.
1a871ff8-f95d-495b-8b91-9d6ccd209528
Numkam Fokoua, Eric
6d9f7e50-dc3b-440a-a0b9-f4a08dd02ccd
Hayes, J.R.
a6d3acd6-d7d5-4614-970e-0e8c594e48e2
Gray, D.R.
46319dbb-26c5-487b-af42-891e7b00e14f
Li, Zhihong
56119e60-7f35-4072-9344-27be4ce17a9a
Slavík, R.
2591726a-ecc0-4d1a-8e1d-4d0fd8da8f7d
Richardson, D.J.
ebfe1ff9-d0c2-4e52-b7ae-c1b13bccdef3

Poletti, F., Wheeler, N.V., Petrovich, M.N., Baddela, N., Numkam Fokoua, Eric, Hayes, J.R., Gray, D.R., Li, Zhihong, Slavík, R. and Richardson, D.J. (2013) Towards high-capacity fibre-optic communications at the speed of light in vacuum. Nature Photonics, 7 (4), 279-284. (doi:10.1038/NPHOTON.2013.45).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Wide-bandwidth signal transmission with low latency is emerging as a key requirement in a number of applications, including the development of future exaflop-scale supercomputers, financial algorithmic trading and cloud computing. Optical fibres provide unsurpassed transmission bandwidth, but light propagates 31% slower in a silica glass fibre than in vacuum, thus compromising latency. Air guidance in hollow-core fibres can reduce fibre latency very significantly. However, state-of-the-art technology cannot achieve the combined values of loss, bandwidth and mode-coupling characteristics required for high-capacity data transmission. Here, we report a fundamentally improved hollow-core photonic-bandgap fibre that provides a record combination of low loss (3.5 dB km-1) and wide bandwidth (160 nm), and use it to transmit 373 x 40 Gbit s-1 channels at a 1.54 ms km-1 faster speed than in a conventional fibre. This represents the first experimental demonstration of fibre-based wavelength division multiplexed data transmission at close to (99.7%) the speed of light in vacuum

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More information

Published date: 24 March 2013
Organisations: Optoelectronics Research Centre, Electronics & Computer Science
Learn more about Optoelectronics Research Centre research

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 351369
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/351369
DOI: doi:10.1038/NPHOTON.2013.45
ISSN: 1749-4885
PURE UUID: dd3633cf-7727-4300-a624-7575f00835cb
ORCID for F. Poletti: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1000-3083
ORCID for N.V. Wheeler: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1265-9510
ORCID for M.N. Petrovich: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3905-5901
ORCID for Eric Numkam Fokoua: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0873-911X
ORCID for R. Slavík: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-9336-4262
ORCID for D.J. Richardson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7751-1058

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Date deposited: 19 Apr 2013 10:14
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:47

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Contributors

Author: F. Poletti ORCID iD
Author: N.V. Wheeler ORCID iD
Author: M.N. Petrovich ORCID iD
Author: N. Baddela
Author: Eric Numkam Fokoua ORCID iD
Author: J.R. Hayes
Author: D.R. Gray
Author: Zhihong Li
Author: R. Slavík ORCID iD
Author: D.J. Richardson ORCID iD

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