Half of this year’s nobel prize in physics to charles k. Kao “for groundbreaking accomplishments concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication” and the other half jointly to willard s. Boyle and george e. Smith for the invention of the ccd sensor were awarded by the royal swedish academy of sciences.
The research guided by the chinese physicist allowed a rapid development of fiber optic technology. Introductory experiments with rays of light guided by glass fibers were conducted in 1870. Thanks to the phenomenon of total internal reflectivity the beam was distributed through the fiber, but the transmission was possible only on short distances.
This resulted from high attenuation of light waves, reaching up to 100 db per kilometer (presently, attenuation of modern optical fibers is when it comes to 0. 2 db/km). The situation radically changed in 1966 when charles kao published the outcomes of his research and pointed out the cause of so high attenuation.
He proved that pollution of the fiberglass with hydroxide ions and ions of parts such as iron, copper and cobalt was the main reason of this phenomenon. The study similarly proved that another reason of increased attenuation was dissipation of energy occurring in the glass structure because of its inhomogeneity.
Thanks to the publication of ch. Kao, already in 1970 the followers were able to incur the introductory pure glass fibers without such contaminants and flaws.
Presently fiber optic networks connect the entire earth being the main means of communication and transmission of big volumes of selective information amongst any parts of the worldwide selective information infrastructure.
Nowadays fiber optic installations are competitive in price compared to conventional wiring, and they have far more transmission ability. It’s the cause why they commence to reach end users (ftth – fiber to the home).