Part of the challenge is that the optical fiber inside the cladding is often very small — as few as 9 microns. That’s a small target to hit without some alignment help, which [Les] uses a ...

A single hair-thin optical fiber is capable of transmitting ... A plastic coating covers the cladding to protect the glass surface. Cables also include fibers of Kevlar and/or steel wires for ...

The researchers said the aragonite fibers strongly resembled human-made fiber-optic cables, except without the cladding. This suggests that these natural fibers could inspire cheaper and more ...