Optical fibre is the backbone of the exploding Internet and telecommunications industries.
So you need to join lengths of the optical fibre. Splicing or fusing is also used regularly in maintenance work. With Prof Rao's method, a pulsed laser beam is directed with pinpoint precision at the joint, to fuse the 0.125 mm-wide fibre together. This is an unprecedented move, he said, because optical fibre is made of silica and usually lets light and laser rays go right through it. In fact, Internet and telecom traffic data has to be converted into light rays so it can be sent around the world via these cables.