Researchers from Harvard University, Zhejiang University Tohoku University have made glass optical fibers only 50 nanometers wide that guide light with minimal losses.

Because the wires are thinner than the wavelengths of light they transport, the material serves as a guide around which light waves flow. The researchers can fabricate the wires with a uniform diameter and smooth surfaces down to the atomic level, so the light waves remain coherent as they travel.

The new material may have applications in ever-shrinking medical products and tiny photonics equipment, such as nanoscale laser systems, tools for communications and sensors.

NSF press release