Reliable and ubiquitous, optical fibers carry long-distance phone calls and Internet data around the world, guide military weapon systems, underpin smart highways, and monitor deep-sea oil wells, to name just a few applications. However, silica fibers are reaching their information-carrying capacity limits because of phenomena known as nonlinear optical effects, of which there are several variants. MNTL faculty affiliate Peter Dragic is conducting research to overcome these non-linear effects, which are interactions between light and matter that limit the power output of optical fibers.