Nanotechnology: A Gentle Introduction to the Next Big Idea

Light Transmission

Communications are crucial for modern society. Thirty years ago there were no cell phones, no Internet, no World Wide Web, no discount long-distance carriers (and many fewer telemarketers). Vastly improved communications networks resulted in making the world seem smaller and more intimate, and (in an optimistic view) closer and less warlike.

Almost all modern communications involve the transfer of messages using different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. There are long wavelength radio stations, shorter wavelength microwave towers, and very short wavelength optical communications. Optical fibers have been one of the real technological successes of the past two decades. Fiber optics permit high-speed, efficient, high-density, ...