Here’s how to make a fiber-optic cable out of air using a laser

Air-based 'waveguides' could help with remote sensing as well as laser beam weapons

A green laser beam travels through a lens and creates a 90 degree turn

Specially tailored laser beams can create a channel in the air through which light can efficiently travel, creating something akin to a fiber optic cable made of air.

Михаил Руденко/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Tubular laser beams can create what amount to fiber-optic cables made of thin air, researchers report in a study to appear in Physical Review X.