Worldwide University Network

New process builds electronic function into optical fiber

A team of researchers lead by John Badding at Penn State and Pier Sazio at the University of Southampton report in the March 17, 2006 issue of the journal Science a new way to create semiconductor devices, including a transistor, inside microstructured optical fibers. The resulting ability to generate and manipulate signals inside optical fibers could have applications in fields as diverse as medicine, telecommunications, computing and remote sensing devices.

The World University Network helped facilitate the Badding-Sazio collaboration by providing a travel grant allowing Sazio, from Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Center to visit Penn State's University Park campus. Eventually, the two wrote a joint research proposal, winning funding from the National Science Foundation, the NSF-funded Penn State Center for Nanoscale Science; the Penn State-Lehigh Center for Optical Technologies; the U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; and the Mexican Council for Science and Technology.

"The WUN really helped us to get this project going in its early, unfunded stages and beyond by providing substantial support for travel for both the US and UK groups," says Badding.

Read the full press release.