Co-Presented by MRS, the Materials Research Society and ACerS, the American Ceramic Society

Optical fibers, a major contributor to the multi-trillion dollar annual global economic impact of light, enable all modern means of communication and e-commerce, from streaming videos to online shopping. They are also used in medical endoscopes to peer into the body, and to bring high-power laser light to machining instruments central to the manufacturing of practically all modern electronics, automobiles, and planes.

However, some fibers are approaching limits in their ability to enable quickly developing technologies. The ever-present demand for enhanced performance has brought about a renaissance in fiber optics materials, their methods of fabrication, and the range of properties one can achieve.

This webinar will feature four talks from noted experts covering the past, present, and future of optical fibers and the materials from which they are made. Topics include material advances in fibers for telecommunications, specialty fibers for high energy laser systems, crystalline semiconductor fibers for novel in-fiber optoelectronics, and soft glass fibers for medical and sensing applications.

A Q&A session will be held with each speaker at the conclusion of their talks.

Talk Presentations:

Past, Present and Future of Telecommunications Fibers
Peter Schultz, Peter Schultz Consulting
Talk begins at 6:17
Frontiers of Optical Fibers
John Ballato, Clemson University
Talk begins at 36:50
Advances in semiconductor-core optical fibers - a materials processing adventure
Ursula Gibson, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Talk begins at 1:06:30
Soft glass fibers for sensing and laser applications
Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem, The University of Adelaide
Talk begins at 1:30:23