²⁸The most straight-forward way to make an optical fiber single-mode is to manufacture it with a skinnier core. However, this is also possible to achieve by increasing the wavelength of the light used! Remember that what makes a single-mode optical fiber only have one mode is the diameter of its core relative to the wavelength of the light. For any optical fiber there is a cutoff wavelength above which it will operate as single-mode and below which it will operate as multi-mode. However, there are practical limits to how long of a wavelength we can make the light before we run into other problems, and so single-mode optical fiber is made for standard light wavelengths by manufacturing the cable with an exceptionally small core diameter.