optical fiber

American  

noun

1. a very thin, flexible glass or plastic strand along which large quantities of information can be transmitted in the form of light pulses: used in telecommunications, medicine, and other fields.

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optical fiber Scientific  

1. A flexible transparent fiber of extremely pure glass or plastic, generally between 10 and 200 micrometers in diameter, used especially to carry light signals for telecommunication purposes.

2. See more at fiber optics

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Etymology

Origin of optical fiber

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

An affordable quantum internet would rely on the same optical fibers used now.

From Science Daily

Researchers implanted an optical fiber in the rodents’ brains that can observe the fluorescent light cast by neurons that have been genetically modified to express fluorescent proteins when they’re active.

From Science Magazine

State-owned Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd's optical fiber network was experiencing faults and hence users in northern and central regions of the country were facing an outage, it said in a tweet.

From Reuters

That core is surrounded with green optical fibers and a reflective film that bounces away stray particles.

From Scientific American

It is a bundle of optical fibers that carry beams of light.

From New York Times