Fiber-optic booster on a chip

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After traveling through 20 kilometers of optical fiber a pulse of light a few picoseconds long becomes distorted. Pumping with a clean pulse on a photonic microchip can sharpen the signal before sending it further down the line. Credit: Gaeta Lab
After traveling through 20 kilometers of optical fiber a pulse of light a few picoseconds long becomes distorted. "Pumping" with a clean pulse on a photonic microchip can sharpen the signal before sending it further down the line. Credit: Gaeta Lab

More and more of our communications -- from text messages to high-definition television -- travel over optical fiber. At last count the United States was crisscrossed by more than 80 million miles of it, with some 225 million miles worldwide.



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