2009 Nobel Prize in physics for groundbreaking achievements in fiber optics

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awardedproved that pollution of the fiberglass with hydroxide
half of this year's Nobel Prize in physics to Charles K.ions and ions of elements such as iron, copper and
Kao "for groundbreaking achievements concerningcobalt was the main reason of this phenomenon. The
the transmission of light in fibers for opticalstudy also proved that another reason of increased
communication" and the other half jointly to Willard S.attenuation was dissipation of energy occurring in the
Boyle and George E. Smith for the invention of theglass structure due to its inhomogeneity. Thanks to
CCD sensor. The research conducted by the Chinesethe publication of Ch. Kao, already in 1970 the
physicist allowed a rapid development of fiber opticfollowers were able to obtain the first pure glass
technology. First experiments with rays of lightfibers without such contaminants and flaws.
guided by glass fibers were conducted in 1870.Currently fiber optic networks connect the whole
Thanks to the phenomenon of total internal reflectionworld being the main means of communication and
the beam was propagated through the fiber, but thetransmission of huge volumes of data between any
transmission was possible only on short distances.parts of the worldwide information infrastructure.
This resulted from high attenuation of light waves,Nowadays fiber optic installations are competitive in
reaching up to 100 dB per kilometer (currently,price compared to traditional wiring, and they have
attenuation of modern optical fibers is about 0.2 dBfar more transmission capacity. It's the reason why
km). The situation radically changed in 1966 whenthey start to reach end users (FTTH - Fiber To The
Charles Kao published the results of his research andHome).
pointed out the cause of so high attenuation. He