Crystalline materials enable high-speed electronic function in optical fibers

For the first time, researchers have developed crystalline materials that allow an optical fiber to have integrated, high-speed electronic functions. The potential applications of such optical fibers include improved telecommunications and other hybrid optical and electronic technologies, improved laser technology, and more-accurate remote-sensing devices. The international team, led by John Badding, a professor of chemistry at Penn State, will publish its findings in the journal Nature Photonics. The team built an optical fiber with a high-speed electronic junction -- the active boundary where all the electronic action takes place -- integrated adjacent to the light-guiding fiber core.