News EPFL

New fiber optic sensors transmit data up to 100 times faster

Published:13.11.20 — Fiber optic sensors – used in critical applications like detecting fires in tunnels, pinpointing leaks in pipelines and predicting landslides – are about to get even faster and more accurate.

Using air to amplify light

Published:11.08.20 — In a promising breakthrough for the future of communications, EPFL researchers have developed a technology that can amplify light in the latest hollow-core optical fibers.

Optical fibers that can “feel” the materials around them

Published:31.07.18 — EPFL researchers have developed an optical fiber capable of detecting what sort of material or liquid they have come into contact with. Their research has been published in Nature Communications.

Photoshop filters for safer bridges

Published:01.03.16 — Image processing tools can improve our ability to monitor the soundness of infrastructure like bridges and gas pipelines. They increase the precision of optical-fiber measurements by a factor of 100.

Using spider silk to detect molecules

Published:13.01.16 — At EPFL, fiber optics specialists have discovered some unique qualities of spider silk when it comes to conducting light and reacting to certain substances.

Looking back at 2013 (3/3): The World's First Solar Window

Published:06.01.14 — During the last quarter of the year, construction began on an impressive glass façade composed of 300 square meters of dye solar cells for EPFL’s Swiss Tech Convention Center. This is a world first. Breton lighthouses have been reinforced by a combination of materials developed in an EPFL laboratory, and life has become difficult for perfume counterfeiters due to a new detection process. A new work and meeting space for emerging start-ups was established on campus in mid-November. And just before 2013 ended, EPFL obtained control of a new national research center dedicated to the development of innovative materials through the use of computer simulations.

Ten Times More Throughput on Optic Fibers

Published:05.12.13 — Two EPFL scientists have shown how to achieve a dramatic increase in the capacity of optical fibers. Their simple, innovative solution reduces the amount of space required between the pulses of light that transport data. The breakthrough could increase the throughput of data in telecommunications systems by a factor of ten.