This proposal seeks funds to support a national workshop on next-generation optical fiber technology. The workshop will be held in Cocoa Beach, Florida, on October 17-19th, 2010. Intellectual Merit: The conference will assemble key leaders in the field, including international experts, to present recent advances in optical fiber technology, and will discuss future developments as they relate to diverse novel applications. The goal of this meeting is to produce a development roadmap that will support the disciplines that would benefit from this research, by bringing together researchers from the multiple fields of applications and defining the new fiber requirements. The workshop will probe novel materials development, future directions in fiber manufacturing and new application areas. Broader impact: The workshop has a confirmed list of key speakers, active experts in the field, and is conducted by a team of professors with a strong and diverse background in fiber optics. The location, close to Orlando, will facilitate participation from international speakers as well as US researchers and students. The agenda offers a dynamic platform conducive to interaction, solving interdisciplinary problems and identifying novel directions.
The NSF-sponsored "Workshop on Next Generation Fibers", was organized by the PI’s at the Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront, Cocoa Beach, Florida, in the period Oct. 17-19, 2010. The aim of the workshop was to bring together experts from around the world engaged in different aspects of optical fiber research. This workshop drew principal investigators in this field from across the nation, together with experts from major optical fiber fabrication facilities outside the US. The major objectives of the workshop were (i) to identify application areas of new optical fibers and quantify their potential technological impact, and (ii), to assess the challenges and opportunities in new materials development and fabrication techniques that will enable these next-generation fibers. The workshop was particularly focused on the fabrication and processing of the next generation of optical fibers: microstructured fibers, photonic crystal fibers, and photonic band gap fibers. The specific topics that the workshop focused on included: fiber fabrication technologies; new materials for optical fibers; photonic crystal and photonic bandgap fibers; multi-material structured fibers; micro/nano-structured fibers; and optical fiber applications. The attendees agreed that this workshop was unique in the topics that it covered which are typically overlooked in other conferences. In particular, the focus on fiber fabrication has been lacking in other venues. The workshop was well-attended and brought together academic experts from the US, Canada, and Europe (UK, France, and Germany), industry leaders from around the US, and representatives of government funding agencies. A discussion was fostered on the means of expanding research on optical fibers in the US. Several suggestions were made by the panels; one suggestion that garnered the most agreement was the need for a national effort or consortium on optical fiber fabrication. Another discussion suggested laying out a ‘roadmap’ for optical fibers in the same spirit of the semiconductor industry roadmap. Furthermore, a poster session was run in parallel with the sessions. The posters were prepared and presented by the graduate students at CREOL, The College of Optics & Photonics, University of Central Florida. This was a unique educational experience for the students who got the opportunity to interact closely with the leaders in the field of optical fiber fabrication and processing.
