By Sid Perkins
Three scientists will share the 2009 Nobel Prize in physics for scientific discoveries that revolutionized the fields of telecommunications and photography, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced October 6.
Half of the prize was awarded to Charles K. Kao, retired director of engineering at the Standard Telecommunication Laboratories in Harlow, England, for research that led to dramatic improvements in fiber-optic telecommunications. The other half will be split equally by Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, both retired from Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., for inventing the charge-coupled device, a semiconductor circuit that captures images in digital cameras, medical imaging devices and telescopes.
In the late 1960s, fiber-optic communication was a phenomenon known only in the lab because low-quality glass fibers prevented efficient transmission of light. About 99 percent of the light sent down a glass fiber disappeared after traveling only 20 meters. But Kao’s research hinted that chemical impurities in the glass, not physical imperfections, were to blame for the inefficiency. He suggested that light could move more than 100 kilometers through ultrapure glass. Material scientists worldwide rose to the challenge, and within four years researchers at Corning Glass Works in New York had produced a kilometer-long optical fiber suitable for long-distance communication.