A gift from God

Motivated by a fighting spirit, we set out with our backs against the wall in a completely competitive arena, and the name Fujikura suddenly resounded throughout the world.

In addition to a sense of social mission, Fujikura felt a sense of crisis: "If we don't gain an advantage in the development of Optical Fiber, we have no future!" This led to a desperate start to the research and development effort. The joint research with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (NTT) was essentially a completely competitive forum, with research results presented monthly and winners decided at each presentation. The first research theme was "approach to achieving ultra-low loss." As the joint research began, the targets kept rising, leaving no time for idleness. The researchers were so absorbed in their experiments that they forgot to eat and sleep. Using Bell Labs' most advanced method at the time (MCVD, or internal chemical vapor deposition), Fujikura quickly developed a fiber with a loss of 1.5 dB/km at a wavelength of 0.85 μm. Analysis of this fiber revealed a strong point / feature that set it apart from previous fibers.

According to a graph showing the relationship between wavelength and loss for silica glass Optical Fiber at that time, there was a large peak of loss due to moisture (hydroxyl groups) in Optical Fiber at around 0.95 μm wavelength. However, the fiber made by Fujikura had extremely little loss due to moisture. This is because Fujikura's researchers thoroughly pursued and succeeded in developing technology to remove water during manufacturing process. The Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation's Ibaraki Communication Research Laboratory, realizing the importance of Fujikura's optical Optical Fiber, used a precision measuring device that had been developed for the long wavelength range of 1.1 to 3 μm to measure in the longer wavelength range. As a result, in March 1976, they discovered a minimum loss point of 0.47 dB/km at a wavelength of 1.2 μm, approaching the theoretical limit.

In collaboration with the Ibaraki Communication Laboratory, Fujikura submitted this groundbreaking result to the British Institute of Electrical Engineers' journal, Electronics Letters. The paper, titled "Wavelength loss characteristics of Optical Fiber with low hydroxyl groups," published in the June 10, 1976 issue of the journal, became one of the most cited papers in the world in the field of optical communications, and received prestigious accolades such as the IEE's Best Paper of the Year Award in the UK, as well as the Japan Institute of Telecommunications Engineers' Achievement Award in 1976 and the Science and Technology Agency's Research Achievement Award in 1978. This made Fujikura's name known around the world, and the company would go on to maintain its leading position in the field of low-loss fiber.

Paper published in Electronics Letters