1970 Fiber optics: Low-loss fibers, reliable lasers, and millimeter-wave research joined to create optical communication

Charles Burrus, a millimeter-wave diode expert, and three dozen other millimeter-waveguide investigators, sat expectantly in the Bell Laboratories´ conference room at the Crawford Hill Laboratory in Holmdel, N.J. It was mid-1963. Microwave division leader Stewart E. Miller stood up and announced that the research group would be redirecting its efforts from millimeter-wave guides to guided-wave optical communications, and that people should finish all pending projects and then set about re-equipping the laboratory. “We went into optics by fiat,” Burrus recalled.