Trio behind optical IT win Nobel Prize for Physics

Charles K. Kao won half of the Nobel prize for his work on fibre-optics

This year's Nobel Prize for Physics has been awarded to three men behind fibre-optics and digital photography.

Charles K. Kao was given 50 per cent of the award for his 1966 discovery that light could be used to send data down glass fibres for over 100 kilometres, rather than the 20 metres of the time.

Removing impurities from the glass fibre enabled coherent light to travel much further and the first 'ultra pure' fibre was produced in 1970.

"Today optical fibres make up the circulatory system that nourishes our communication society," said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

"If we were to unravel all of the glass fibres that wind around the globe, we would get a single thread over one billion kilometres long, which is enough to encircle the globe more than 25,000 times and is increasing by thousands of kilometres every hour."

The second half of the award is shared by Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith for their invention of the first charge-coupled device (CCD), which created the digital camera market.

The CCD technology depends on the photoelectric effect, as proposed by Albert Einstein and for which he was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize.

"Digital photography has become an irreplaceable tool in many fields of research. The CCD has provided new possibilities to visualise the previously unseen. It has given us crystal clear images of distant places in our universe as well as the depths of the oceans," said the Academy.

The annual prizes are worth 10 million Swedish kronor (£890,000) and are awarded for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace.