Physics Nobel Prize Winners 2009

Physics Nobel Prize winners earn a diploma and medal in addition to the cash award. The Nobel
Prize is the highest honor that scientists can win for making scientific discoveries.Physics Nobel
Prize for 2009
In 2009 the Physics Nobel Prize was shared by:
Charles K. KaoWillard S. BoyleGeorge E. SmithKao earned his share of the prize for pioneering work
on fiber optic cables that paved the way for the communications revolution of the past generation.
Boyle and Smith earned their share of the prize for inventing the charge coupled device (CCD), the
fundamental component of digital cameras.Charles K. Kao and Fiber Optic Cables
The principle of total internal reflection causes fiber optic cables to transmit light along the cable.
Each time light strikes the edge of the cable, the surface reflects all the light back into the cable
with no light leaving the cable.
Kao did not invent fiber optic cables. Physicists already understood the principles, but they were not
practical. Prior to Kao's work, fiber optic cables absorbed all the light in a relatively short distance,
rendering them impractical for long distance communications.
Kao realized that impurities, particularly iron, in the glass used for fiber optics caused the light
absorption. In a 1966 paper published with G.A. Hockman, Kao pointed out that removing the
impurities in the glass used for fiber optic cables and using rapidly solidified high temperature
glasses should increase the distance that fiber optic cables can transmit light.
Much engineering work still needed to be done, but Kao's pioneering work led to the development of
very efficient fiber optic cables that can transmit light over long distances. Now fiber optics are used
to transmit digital information in world wide communication networks.
Willard Boyle, George Smith, and Charge Coupled Devices

Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith invented the Charge Coupled Device (CCD) while working at
Bell Labs in 1969. They were under pressure from their boss, Jack Morton, to devise something to
compete with magnetic bubble technology, the most promising computer memory technology at the
time. At the time Bell Labs was also working to develop picture phones, which never attained the
popularity Bell Labs executives of the time hoped. A promising new imaging technology would allow
Boyle and Smith to keep laboratory resources for their groups.

Boyle and Smith met for an hour long

brainstorming session on October 17, 1969.
During this session, they managed to sketch out
the basic design for a CCD. By the end of the
session, they knew they had invented something
significant. The first prototype that Boyle and
Smith had built was fairly crude, but it proved
that the design could work. Scientists and
engineers continued to improve the design of
CCDs and now they are inexpensive and
ubiquitous.
The CCD camera invented by Boyle and Smith has
revolutionized photography and the transmission
of images. Modern digital cameras use CCDs
rather than film, so storing and sharing images over the world wide web of Kao's fiber optic cables is
very easy.

Starting in the late 1970s, CCD cameras revolutionized astronomy. CCD cameras on space missions
to other planets and the Hubble Space Telescope routinely return stunning images. Because CCDs
are so much more sensitive than film relatively modest telescopes equipped with CCD cameras are
as sensitive as the world's largest telescopes prior to CCDs; large telescopes are even more
sensitive. The low cost of CCDs allows amateur astronomers to make important contributions to
astronomy.
Kao's fiber optic cables coupled with Boyle and Smith's charges coupled devices revolutionized both
communications and imaging.
Further Reading
Nobel Prize Foundation, nobelprize.org, accessed October 2, 2010.
Physics Nobel Prize Winners 2010