High-performance optical fiber is used extensively for the manufacture of efficient and compact ultraviolet, visible, and infrared fiber lasers due to its low intrinsic loss, wide transparency window, and small phonon energy. This technology enables advances in many different sectors, including medical devices such as laser scalpels and endoscopes, sensors for the aerospace and defense industry, and telecommunications applications. The optical fiber ZBLAN has the potential to far exceed the performance of other fibers in common use. Despite this, the terrestrially produced fiber suffers from physical impurities which contribute to light scattering and absorption loss, reducing performance. Microgravity has been shown to significantly reduce these imperfections, and production of fibers in space may enable not only improved materials but also new frontiers for manufacturing in space.
