Optical fiber: progress in half a century and recent trends

Abstract

In 1970, Kapron et al. reported an optical fiber with a transmission loss of 20 dB/km, and a semiconductor laser continuously oscillating at room temperature was successfully demonstrated. This breakthrough led to the technological development of optical fiber communication in a big way. Optical fibers have since evolved rapidly, and are now indispensable in a wide variety of applications such as telecommunications, remote sensing, medicine, power transmission, etc. In this report, the progress of optical fibers in the last half century is reviewed, and current trends in optical fiber research are introduced.