International Journal of Applied Glass Science, 7 [4] 413–422 (2016)

DOI:10.1111/ijag.12239

Glass: The Carrier of Light – A Brief History of Optical Fiber

John Ballato
Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Center for Optical Materials Science and
Engineering Technologies (COMSET), Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634

Peter Dragic
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
Urbana, Illinois 61801

All voice and data communications employ silica glass optical fiber at some point in their nearly instantaneous transmis-
sion. This is enabled globally by the annual production of over 180 million kilometers of optical fiber. Since the first low-loss
fiber installations, nearly 2 billion kilometers have been manufactured, which is enough to connect the Earth with Jupiter.1
Given such a rare combination of ubiquity and utility, this article reviews the history of glass optical fiber and provides com-
mentary on recent developments, and musings on their future.

Keywords: optical fiber; glass; lasers; optical properties

History Robert Hooke (1665),4 Isaac Newton (1721),5 and
James Clerk Maxwell (1864).6 Indeed, it was Maxwell
Light has been illuminating the Universe since its abso- who is credited with unifying the fields of electricity and
lute beginnings. The first documented efforts at describing magnetism into electromagnetism and providing the
light can be attributed to Euclid (circa 300 BC),2 followed mathematical foundation for light as it is described
by Ab
u ‘Al
ı al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham (circa 1015a),3 today.
As specifically relates to optical fiber, the guiding
jballat@clemson.edu principle for light confinement and propagation is total
© 2016 The Authors. International Journal of Applied Glass Science published by John Wiley &
Sons Ltd. on behalf of The American Ceramic Society and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. internal reflection. Total internal reflection was used to
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- explain the appearance of rainbows as early as 1300
NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
AD, independently by Al-Farisi7 and Theodoric of
Freiberg,8 both of whom based their experiments on
a
The millennial anniversary of Ibn al-Haytham’s opus was one of several reasons for 2015 being cele- the work by Ptolemy.9 However, it was not until the
brated globally as UNESCO’s International Year of Light (IYL). Other major light-related anniver-
saries celebrated during 2015 IYL were as follows: the proposition of light as a wave (Fresnel, 1815),
1600s when total internal reflection was first systemati-
the electromagnetic theory of light (Maxwell, 1865), theory of the photoelectric effect (Einstein, cally studied by Johannes Kepler in 1611,10 mathemati-
1905), role of light in cosmology through general relativity (Einstein, 1915), discovery of the cosmic cally defined by Snellius (from whom the “Snell” of
microwave background (Penzias and Wilson, 1965), and, as noted herein, Charles Kao’s achievements
regarding the transmission of light in optical fibers for communication (1965; published in 1966).
Snell’s Law is derived) in 1621, but unpublished until
414 International Journal of Applied Glass Science—Ballato and Dragic
mentioned by Huygens in his Treatise on Light in
1690.11 Colladon and Babinet demonstrated a “lighted
laminar water fountain” in 1841 and published the
results in 1842.12,13 However, it was John Tyndall who
popularized the demonstration in a series of public lec-
tures in the 1850s and history has largely associated his
name with the discovery.
Although the physics of total internal reflection
was well understood, the potential application of opti-
cal fiber beyond illumination14 and imaging15 would
not be more fully appreciated for nearly another
century; not until, that is, the advent of the laser as a
coherent and collimated light source.16 Shortly after the
first crystalline17 and gas lasers18 were realized, Snitzerb
developed the first glass laser19 and, subsequently, the
first optical fiber amplifier.20 This latter advancement
was especially critical to the future development of
optical fiber communication and laser systems particu-
larly in light of the invention a few years earlier of
the semiconductor laser.21 By 1964, all of the neces-
sary building blocks had been realized, all-be-them
independently.
In 1966, Kaob and Hockham published their now
famous work, which evaluated material and loss mecha-
nisms in waveguides and determined that a dielectric
fiber “represents a possible medium for the guided
transmission of energy at optical frequencies.22” Most
memorably, they conclude that “Certainly, the required
loss figure of around 20 dB/km is much higher than
the lower limit of loss figure imposed by fundamental
mechanisms.” This work earned Kao the Nobel Prize
in Physics in 2009 for “groundbreaking achievements
concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical
communication.23” It is worth noting that this
year (2016) represents the 50th anniversary of this
publication.22
The global challenge to make such low-loss opti-
cal fibers was accepted by many, though the most
successful were those by Corning, Corning, NY
(Keck, Maurer,b and Schultz), Bell Labs, Murray
Hill, NJ (MacChesneyb), and ITT, Tokyo, Japan
(Izawa).24–29 These teams developed the fabrication
processes employed to make the bulk preforms from
b
It is worth noting that the American Ceramic Society, which publishes this Journal, was
central to the earliest days of glass and optical fiber development. For example, the George
Morey Award, which is the premiere award for the Society’s Glass and Optical Materials
Division, was awarded to many of the seminal contributors listed in this Review: the glass
laser (Snitzer, 1971), low-loss optical fiber (Kao, MacChesney, and Maurer, 1976), and
fluoride glasses (Lucas and Poulain, 1989).
Vol. 7, No. 4, 2016
which optical fibers subsequently are drawn. Each of
the main processes can be categorized as being chem-
ical vapor deposition (CVD) methods with Corning
developing the outside vapor deposition, OVD, method,
Bell Labs developing the modified chemical vapor depo-
sition, MCVD, method, and ITT developing the vapor
axial deposition, VAD, method. The same basic chem-
istry is used in each case, which involves the thermo-
chemical oxidation of a volatile halide: SiCl4 + O2 ?
SiO2 + 2Cl2. Because of the remarkably large vapor
pressure differences (nearly 12 orders of magnitude)
between the SiCl4 precursor and impurities, such as
Fe2Cl6, the resultant glass is exceedingly pure and this
purity enables the attainment of intrinsic optical atten-
uation from the fibers. Other precursors, also with rea-
sonably large vapor pressure differences, such as GeCl4
and POCl3 (precursors to GeO2 and P2O5, respec-
tively), are added into the SiCl4 + O2 vapor stream to
yield compositional modification to the SiO2 necessary
to create the core/clad waveguiding structure of the
optical fiber.
Given the significant potential for communication
systems employing low-loss optical fibers, work began
almost immediately on fabrication methods following
the Kao and Hockham paper. Only a few years later,
the Corning team broke the 20 dB/km barrier.30
Within several years, other approaches ensued, each
with their own advantages and disadvantages. Within a
few additional years, the first nonexperimental optical
fiber communication links were being used in the Uni-
ted Kingdom and the United States.
The combination of low loss over long distances
with small core sizes made optical fiber a new practical
tool for the study of otherwise very weak nonlinear
optical effects such as those involving frequency mixing
processes (e.g., sum frequency generation [SFG], differ-
ence frequency generation [DFG], optical parametric
amplification [OPA], and third harmonic generation
[THG]) or other nonlinear processes (e.g., optical Kerr
effect, self-focusing, self-phase modulation [SPM],
cross-phase modulation [XPM], four-wave mixing
[FWM], multiphoton absorption, optical solitons, stim-
ulated Brillouin scattering [SBS], and stimulated
Raman scattering [SRS]). As Stolen notes in his review
“Fiber nonlinear optics has grown from a novel med-
ium for the study of nonlinear optical effects, through
a period where these effects appeared as system impair-
ments, to the present day where optical nonlinearities
are an integral part of high capacity optical systems.31”
www.ceramics.org/IJAGS Carrier of Light
Today, optical fibers specifically, and lasers more
generally, are used in countless applications including
communications, medicine, energy, manufacturing,
sensing, transportation, entertainment, and as tools for
scientific inquiry.32 The history provided above was
intended only as a brief summary. An exhaustive his-
tory of light, light guidance, and the development and
application of optical fiber has been the source of many
fine articles and books.33,34 As the purpose of this
Review is to provide highlights from the past while
provoking the future, Table 1 provides a “modern” his-
tory of optical fiber and related discoveries and inven-
tions, with references for further study as the Reader
wishes.
A Bright Future
Just as Kao and Hockham could never have envi-
sioned what their efforts would have enabled over the
intervening 50 years, it is nearly impossible to predict
the future opportunities in store for optical fiber. How-
ever, there are several trends that have emerged and the
section that follows discusses these in general and
proposes an unorthodox approach to their handling.
Trends in the Modern Era and State of the Art
Be it more Internet traffic or requisite power levels
needed for manufacturing or directed energy applica-
tions, the optical power propagating through optical
fibers today has grown markedly over the past few dec-
ades. As noted in Table 1, it took only 20 years for the
output power from a fiber laser to reach 30 kW from
10 W.35,36 The small mode diameter of conventional
fibers (providing a potential for high intensity light
confinement) and long propagation lengths lead to the
excitation of a bouquet of parasitic nonlinear phenom-
ena. These nonlinearities have caused the growth over
time in output powers to plateau and, today, represent
the main limitation in fiber system performance. Fig-
ure 1 provides a list of the main optical nonlinearities
that presently limit the continued scaling to higher
powers in fiber-optic systems.
In response to these parasitic effects, the optical
fiber community began to develop new optical fibers
whose cross-sections possess periodic regions of high
and low index glasses (or, possibly air/voids). The peri-
odic structure leads to the formation of optical
415
bandgaps that permit or restrict certain energies or
polarizations of light to propagate, thus providing a
means of control.37–39 These microstructured or pho-
tonic crystal optical fibers can be very complex in struc-
ture and have promoted incremental improvements in
reducing the aforementioned parasitic nonlinearities via
slightly enhancing the mode size. These structured
fibers have significant barriers to commercial entry due
to their complexity and, therefore, high cost and low
yield. Figure 2 provides representative images of
selected photonic crystal fibers.
The development of microstructured and photonic
crystal optical fibers has led to the realization of a great
many new types of fibers from a wealth of optical
materials including novel “multimaterial” fibers.40,41
However, it is the author’s supposition that developing
ever-more complicated optical fibers as a means of
reducing the detrimental effects of optical nonlinearities
is equivalent to a medical doctor treating the symptoms
of an illness through medication and not attacking the
disease itself. At the most fundamental level, it is the
interaction of the light with the material from which
the fiber is made that is the origin of these parasitic
nonlinearities. In order to truly mitigate these effects,
one must start with the material.42,43 Each phe-
nomenon has a materials origin and it is through the
appropriate materials coefficients that reductions can be
gained, if not fully negated. As previously noted, Fig. 1
provides a compilation of the five main phenomena
that presently limit the scaling of fiber lasers to higher
output powers.35,36,44,45 Included is a brief description
of each phenomenon, the issue it presents, and the
material properties that can influence its magnitude.
A canonical case-in-point is SBS.46 SBS is an inter-
action between hypersonic (thermally excited) acoustic
waves and the optical signal. The acoustic wave pro-
duces a periodic longitudinal pressure, hence density
variation. The spatially modulated density corresponds
to a spatially modulated refractive index. Via elec-
trostriction, the interference between the forward-pro-
pagating optical signal and back-scattered light (from
the original thermally generated periodic refractive
index variation) feeds the acoustic wave. This feedback
process increases in efficiency with increasing optical
power until a threshold is reached where the acoustic
wave becomes a highly efficient reflector to the optical
signal. SBS generally limits the amount of light per
unit bandwidth that can be generated in or transmitted
416 International Journal of Applied Glass Science—Ballato and Dragic Vol. 7, No. 4, 2016

Table 1. A Brief History of Optical Fiber

Year Event
1842 Colladon and Babinet invent the “lighted laminar water fountain” based on total internal reflection12,13
1854 John Tyndall formulates a ray-tracing approach to optical wave guiding67 James Clerk Maxwell unifies
electricity and magnetism into electromagnetism, thereby defining light6
1880 William Wheeling patents “light piping” for illumination14
1888 Austrian medical doctors, Roth and Reuss, employ bent glass rods to illuminate body cavities
1930 Heinrich Lamm first demonstrates imaging using a glass rod bundle15
1933 First television signals optically transmitted (very poorly) over glass rods
1953 First maser was built by Charles Townes, James Gordon, and Herbert Zeiger at Columbia University (United
States). Work is published the following year16
1954 Fiber cladding invented by Abraham Van Heel68,69
1960 Demonstration of the first laser (optical frequencies)17
1961 Elias Snitzerb reports on the waveguide modes of cylindrical glass waveguides70
Snitzerb fabricates a single mode fiber and demonstrates the first bulk glass laser19
1962 Robert Hall demonstrates the semiconductor laser21
1964 First demonstration of fiber-based laser/amplifier20
1966 Kaob and Hockham identify glass impurities as the leading cause of optical loss and theorize glass optical
fibers capable of transmission losses below 20 dB/km22
1970 Corningb breaks the “20 dB/km” loss mark30,71
1972 Development of the Raman fiber amplifier72
1973 First diode end-pumped fiber laser73
1974 Wave mixing in an optical fiber74,75
1975 Discovery of heavy metal fluoride glassesb, 76
First commercial fiber-optic link installed by the Dorset (U.K.) police
1977 First telephone signals using optical fiber occurs in Long Beach, CA (United States)
1978 Photosensitivity and nonlinear effects in optical fiber77,78
Single polarization optical fibers79
Fiber Bragg gratings77,80
1979 Dispersion shifted fibers81
Dispersion flattened fibers82,83
1986 The erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) is pioneered by David Payne (Southampton, United Kingdom)84
and Emmanuel Desurvire (Bell Labs)
1988 First transatlantic telephone cable goes into operation
Experimental realization of a double clad fiber laser85; though suggestions of optimized fiber designs for higher
power operation existed as far back as 196186
1995 First photonic bandgap optical fiber87,88
Output power from optical fiber lasers hits 10 W89
Beginning of the “dot-com” boom
1996 First photonic crystal fiber90
1999 Output power from an optical fiber laser exceeds 100 W91
2000 First photonic crystal optical fiber-based supercontinuum generation92
Beginning of the “telecom bust”
2006 Development of semiconductor core optical fiber that marry silicon photonics with optical fiber93–95
2009 Kaob awarded Nobel Prize in physics23
Output power from an optical fiber laser exceeds 10 KW96
2014 Output power from an optical fiber laser exceeds 30 KW97
www.ceramics.org/IJAGS Carrier of Light 417

Fig. 1. Optical nonlinearities that plague scaling to higher output powers in modern optical fiber-based lasers: SBS is stimulated Bril-
louin scattering, SRS is stimulated Raman scattering, HOMI (TMI) is higher order mode instability (transverse mode instability), n2 is
the nonlinear refractive index, SPM is self-phase modulation, FWM is four-wave mixing, and MoR is modulus of rupture. Provided is a
description of each effect, why it is problematic, and the author’s proposed solution as opposed to conventional methods of microstructural
engineering of the fiber.

Fig. 2. Representative examples of photonic crystal fibers.38

down an optical fiber.47,48 As such, it typically has the scaling to higher powers in high energy (fiber) laser sys-
lowest threshold of all the nonlinear processes in nar- tems. Methods presently employed to suppress SBS
row line-width systems and is a major limitation in the have focused on fiber engineering and typically involve
418 International Journal of Applied Glass Science—Ballato and Dragic
broadening of the Brillouin gain spectrum by tailoring
of the fiber acoustic properties.
However, as has been noted,42 the Brillouin gain
coefficient, gB, at a given wavelength, ko, is propor-
tional to the glass’ p12 photoelastic coefficient
and refractive index, n, and inversely proportional to
its density, q, acoustic velocity, Va, and Brillouin
linewidth, DmB; more specifically,
gB ¼ 2pn7 p122
=ck2o qVa =DmB .49 In other words, rather
than designing and fabricating a complex, large mode
area fiber whose microstructure seeks to control the
optical and acoustic properties in order to suppress
SBS, one conceivably can make a simple core/clad fiber
using a core glass with increased mass density, acoustic
velocity, and Brillouin line-width and/or lower photoe-
lastic constant (p12) and refractive index.
When Negative Becomes a Positive
Each parasitic nonlinearity depends on a (differing)
set of material properties.42,43 Modifying these proper-
ties, through tailoring of the glass composition to the
extent allowable by glass formation and stability, per-
mits reductions to the magnitude of the effects.
However, in certain cases, the compounds compris-
ing the glass can take on property values of opposite
sign such that a composition exists (again, assuming
glass formation) where the undesired effect is zero.
Here, it is illustrative to return again to the exam-
ple of SBS, whose gain is proportional to the p12 pho-
toelastic constant. Whereas silica (SiO2) is known to
have a positive p12 photoelastic constant, alumina
(Al2O3),50–52 baria (BaO),53 strontia (SrO),54 and rare-
earth oxides55,56 have been deduced to have negative
p12 values. Accordingly, a binary silicate with any of
these compounds has a composition where p12, hence
Brillouin gain coefficient, is zero.42 For completeness, it
is worth noting that “deduced” means that the p12 val-
ues are determined by measurements on the drawn
fiber. In comparison to a conventionally prepared and
annealed bulk glass, the core glass in the optical fiber
might be under additional stress57 and have a different
bonding structure due to the rapid fiber quench rates,
both of which can influence the resultant p12 value. In
practice, one does not need a p12 = 0 glass since reduc-
tions in Brillouin gain of even 3 dB (50%) are useful
in many applications. Table 2 provides a compilation
of performance specifications of interest to optical fiber
end-users along with the properties of selected silica-
Vol. 7, No. 4, 2016
clad, molten core-derived optical fibers.42,58,59 Figure 3
shows the deduced Brillouin gain coefficient for the
various silica-clad molten core-derived optical fibers ref-
erenced in Table 2 in comparison to a conventional
telecommunications fiber (left). Figure 3 also provides
an image (right) of a strontium aluminosilicate oxyfluo-
ride molten core fiber (Table 2) whose core glass com-
position is designed to reduce Brillouin and Raman
gain as well as transverse mode instability (TMI).
A second example of this balancing of positive and
negative material coefficients relates to TMI, which is
also known as higher order mode instability (HOMI).
Thermally induced longitudinal refractive index modula-
tions associated with stimulated Rayleigh scattering result
in instabilities in the electromagnetic modes (mode cou-
pling) in “effectively single mode” fiber lasers.60 These
higher order transverse mode instabilities (TMI) limit
power scaling in high-energy laser systems by dynami-
cally randomizing the beam modal distribution.
The causation between stimulated Rayleigh scatter-
ing and TMI yields a materials solution. The TMI
threshold power is proportional to the mass density and
specific heat of the glass and inversely proportional to its
thermo-optic coefficient (dn/dT).45,60,61 Here, in an
analogous manner to SBS, a material with dn/dT = 0
would obviate TMI. Materials such as SiO2, GeO2 (dn/
dT larger than silica), and Al2O3 (dn/dT similar to silica)
have positive dn/dT, whereas this value is negative for
several materials such as P2O5 and B2O3, among many
others, so that selected binaries can exhibit zero dn/dT
values.
As one last example of how this balancing of mate-
rial properties can be a very powerful approach to
either mitigating parasitic optical nonlinearities or cre-
ating new opportunities, consider the coupling between
applied strain and/or temperature (cause) and acoustic
and/or optical properties (effect). The appropriate
material parameters in these cases are the strain optic
coefficient (SOC = dn/de), strain acoustic coefficient
(SAC = dVa/de), thermoptic coefficient (TOC = dn/
dT), and thermacoustic coefficient (TAC = dVa/dT).
These properties also can take on positive and negative
values, depending on the glass and so can, in some
cases, yield a value of zero for the resultant glass. Simple
binary glasses that exhibit such atensic (Brillouin fre-
quency is immune to strain53) and athermal (Brillouin
frequency is immune to temperature) include alumi-
nosilicates,50 borosilicates,53 strontium aluminosili-
cates,54 and lutetium aluminosilicates.62 Residual
www.ceramics.org/IJAGS Carrier of Light 419

Table 2. Comparison of Selected Properties Critical to Modern Fiber Amplifier and laser Performance and
the Values Obtained from the Noted Molten Core–Derived Optical Fibers.
Precursor to molten core–derived optical fiber

Performance Li2O-
specification Goal YAG Al2O3 MgAl2O4 BaO Al2O3 Oxyfluoride
Doping into SiO2 High content 22 54 5.5 18 13 ~20
EM modality Single mode (SM) Near MM U MM U U
SM
Brillouin gain 5–10 dB suppression 10 19 9.4 12 10 7
ZeBrA composition Realistic doping – 88 84 33
Raman gain >3 dB suppression 3 2.5 2.0 3
Thermo-optic >3 dB reduction 3
Brillouin athermal Athermal – U Higher Close U
Brillouin atensic Atensic – – MgAl2O4 Close
levels
Active fiber Rare-earth doped U U U U Not tried but possible
Attenuation <100 dB/km U 200 200 600 1000 400
Strength Equivalent to SMF- U Not measured but fine in practice
28TM
Fusion splice Splice to SMF-28TM U Close U U U U
Reference 98–100 50–52 101 53 63 –
U denotes fibers that meet the stated goal.

Fig. 3. Left: Comparison of computed and measured Brillouin gain from a series of intrinsically low Brillouin gain optical fibers to a
conventional telecommunications optical fiber (Corning’s SMF-28TM); after.42 Right: A representative micrograph of a silica-based intrinsi-
cally low Brillouin, Raman, and thermo-optic optical fiber for comparison to the fibers shown in Fig. 2.
420 International Journal of Applied Glass Science—Ballato and Dragic
stresses associated with the differential thermal expan-
sion between the fiber’s core and clad also can create the
conditions for a Brillouin athermal optical fiber.63 Such
Brillouin atensic and athermal fibers are of great oppor-
tunity to distributed sensor systems whereby the (Bril-
louin) frequency of the scattered light is shifted by an
amount that depends on the optical fiber’s temperature
and strain environment. However, distinguishing
between strain and temperature in a measurement
requires the determination of at least two Brillouin fre-
quency components, which usually is achieved through
the form of a pair of fibers exhibiting specific property
differences. An alternate, and simpler, approach would
be to employ an optical fiber, such as these, that is
immune to either temperature (athermal) or strain
(atensic), therein reducing system complexity.
For completeness, some phenomena, such as SRS,
FWM, and SPM, do not appear to have way to be
fully eradicated as in the case of p12 = 0 for SBS and
dn/dT = 0 for TMI. FWM and SPM originate from
the nonlinear refractive index, n2, which is associated
with the instantaneous electronic response of the third-
order susceptibility, Re[v(3)]. Raman gain, gR, results
from the noninstantaneous (delayed) part of v(3). Thus,
from a materials perspective, intrinsically low n2 glasses
would be effective options to lessen the impact of
SPM, FWM, and SRS in high-energy laser systems.
Relative to conventional germanosilicates and phospho-
silicates employed in optical fiber laser applications,
one based on fluorosilicates or oxyfluorides should exhi-
bit reduced n2 values.64,65 SRS can also be reduced by
producing a more highly disordered glass, naturally
associated with the molten core method, which broad-
ens the Raman spectrum and reduces the peak value of
gR, replacing high Raman gain materials with low gain
ones (e.g., YAG replacing SiO2), and utilizing materials
whose Raman spectral features have minimal overlap.66
Conclusions
Provided herein is a brief history of optical fiber,
including major achievements and more recent develop-
ments, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of
the Kao and Hockham publication that originated mod-
ern communications.22 Also provided are the authors’
musings on present and future trends and steps for-
ward. Of particular importance is the trend of increased
optical power propagating through the fibers and the
Vol. 7, No. 4, 2016
performance limitations created by a host of parasitic
nonlinearities that result. Whereas the majority of the
optical fiber community has approached the mitigation
of such phenomena by designing ever-more-compli-
cated microstructured fibers, the authors propose a
route to very simple fibers that attacks the nonlineari-
ties at their fundamental source: the glass from which
the optical fiber is made.
Acknowledgments
The authors are especially grateful to Wade Haw-
kins, Maxime Cavillon, Courtney Kucera, and Dr.
Roger Stolen (Clemson University). Thoughtful and
insightful communications with Profs. Josef Zwanziger
(Dalhousie University) and Anna Peacock (University
of Southampton) also are appreciated. The authors also
thankfully acknowledge financial support from the U.S.
Department of Defense Joint Technology Office
through contracts W911NF-05-1-0517, FA9550-07-1-
0566, W911NF-12-1-0602, FA9451-15-D-0009/0001,
and FA9451-15-D-0009/0002.
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