Charles K. Kao

Charles K. Kao was a Chinese-born British-American physicist and engineer whose research showed that highly purified glass fibers could carry light signals over long distances.

Optical fiber communication: The transmission of information through optical fibers using modulated light. Kao’s analysis established low-loss glass fibers as a practical medium for long-distance communication.
Optical fiber: A flexible transparent fiber that guides light along its length by internal reflection. Kao identified purified glass optical fibers as candidates for low-loss signal transmission.
Standard Telecommunication Laboratories: A British telecommunications research laboratory operated by Standard Telephones and Cables. Kao and George Hockham investigated optical-fiber losses there and published their influential 1966 analysis.
Willard Boyle: A Canadian physicist and co-inventor of the charge-coupled device. Boyle shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics with Kao and George E. Smith for a separate imaging contribution.
Coaxial cable: An electrical cable with a central conductor surrounded by insulation and a conductive shield. It carried long-distance signals before optical fiber offered far greater transmission capacity.
Fiber-optic communication: Communication systems that send information as light through optical fibers. The networks Kao’s research helped make practical now carry global telephone and internet traffic.
Attenuation: The reduction in signal strength as a signal travels through a medium or system. Kao argued that impurities, rather than an unavoidable property of glass, caused most fiber signal loss.
George Hockham: A British engineer who worked with Charles K. Kao on optical-fiber communication research. Their joint analysis argued that impurities accounted for the high losses then observed in glass fibers.
George E. Smith: An American physicist and co-inventor of the charge-coupled device. Smith shared the 2009 physics prize with Kao, though their honored work concerned electronic imaging.
Microwave transmission: The wireless transmission of information using microwave-frequency electromagnetic waves. It was a major alternative for long-distance links before fiber’s capacity and reliability expanded.

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