The optical fiber is best known for its ability to carry information at high speed over long distances. However, fiber technologies offer several other unique features that are exploited in a variety of ways, such as the capacity to carry high optical powers in flexible light guides for welding stations, the ability to transfer images in endoscopes, the beam quality and compactness of fiber lasers, distributed sensing along pipelines, and low weight combined with high transmission bandwidth in avionics. This talk will describe the research and development carried out within Acreo Fiber Optic Center, as well as its efforts to bring this R&D to commercial value.
