The Argonne quantum loop consists of a pair of connected 26-mile fiber-optic cables that wind circuitously between Argonne to the Illinois tollway near Bolingbrook, IL, and back. At 52 total miles, it is currently among the longest ground-based quantum communication channels in the. Could fiber-optic cables detect moonquakes? Fiber-optic cables lie on the surface and beneath crushed basalt in an indoor lab at Los Alamos National Laboratory to determine whether they could be used on the surface of the moon to detect moonquakes. The crushed basalt simulates the lunar surface. Courtesy/LANL LANL News: Two recent studies. More than 3. 4 billion people are connected to the Internet, placing ever-increasing demand on the telecom industry to provide bigger, better and faster bandwidth to users. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have taken an important step in addressing that need by developing a. Argonne scientists, (left to right) Sean Sullivan, Gary Wolfowicz, Joseph Heremans and Alan Dibos, worked on the quantum loop project and demonstrated the operation of the testbed by generating, transmitting, and detecting optical pulses through one and then both fiber loops. Smaller in diameter than a human hair, these fibers can transmit light pulses of information at billions of pulses per second and over distances of several thousand kilometers, eclipsing what is possible with electrical cables. Optical fibers are used on Earth and in space for applications in medicine, defense, cybersecurity, and telecommunications.