This year Nobel Prize in Physics : Optical fiber and Digital Camera

Nobel Prize was established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901. He was a Swedish chemist and industrialist. He was also inventor of high explosive Dynamite. The mount of 31 million Swedish Kroner was deposited to establish the world's most prestigious prize "Nobel Prize". In the beginning, Nobel Prize was awarded in four different fields, viz. Physics, Chemistry, Literature and Physiology or Medicine. Later other two new fields, Peace and Economics have been introduced.

The first Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Wilhelm Conrad Röentgen, a German, in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of remarkable rays called "X-rays". The Nobel Prize is presented in Stockholm at an annual ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded 103 times to 187 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2009. John Bardeen is the only Nobel Laureate who has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics twice, in 1956 and 1972. A total of 186 individuals have received the Nobel Prize in physics. The Nobel Prize in physics consists of a gold medallion, a diploma (certificate) and a monetary grant. All medals made before 1980 were struck in 23 carat gold. Today, they are made from 18 carat green gold plated with 24 carat gold. The front side of the medal for physics features his name abbreviated as "Alfr. Nobel"  with his date of  birth and death. The reverse side of the medal is 'The medal of the Royal Swedish Academy of sciences". The each Nobel Laureates steps forward to receive the prize from the hand of his Majesty the king of Sweden under the eyes of a watching world.
        
The Nobel laureates are selected by their respective Nobel comities. For the prize in physics, a committee consists of five members elected by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The prizes nomination and selection process is long and rigorous. A maximum of three Laureates and two different works may be selected (in physics). Each award can be given to the maximum three recipients per year. If there are two winners in a particular category, the award grant is divided equally between the recipients. If there are three, the awarding committee has the option of dividing the grant equally, or awarding one half to one recipient and one quarter to each of the others.

There is no Nobel Prize in mathematics, which has led to considerable speculation about why Alfred Nobel omitted it.

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics honors three scientists, who have had important roles in shaping modern information technology, with one half to Charles Kuen Kao and with Willard Sterling Boyle and George Elwood Smith sharing the other half. Kao's discoveries have paved the way for optical fiber technology, which today is used for almost all telephony and data communication. Boyle and Smith have invented a digital image sensor –CCD, or Charge Coupled Device- which today has become an electronic eye in almost all areas of photography. Prof  Kao is a British and US citizen, born 1933 in Shanghai, China. Prof Boyle is a Canadian and US citizen, born 1924 in Amherst, Canada and Prof Smith is a US citizen, born 1930 in NY, USA.
One of the most abundant mineral on the earth is quartz (a kind of sand), glass is manufactured from the same. The data   transmission cable is manufactured from the glass with appropriate chemistry. The strong, light and flexible glass fibers are the means of data communication in the digital language of "0" and "1". Today, telephone and data communication flows in a network of optical glass fiber, the length of which totals over one billion kilometers. If that amount of optical fiber was wrapped around the earth, it would span the world more than 25 thousand times- and the amount of fiber is increasing every hour. Infrared light with a wavelength of 1.55 micrometers is nowadays used for all long distance communication. Its working principle is based on the principle of total internal reflection within the optical fiber. Coating the bare fiber in a glass cladding with a material of lower refractive index helps total internal reflection phenomenon. All the information could now be coded into an extremely flashing light, representing digital ones and zeros. Research of Kao is deeply based on the transmission of digital signals of telephone, television, video and so on.

On the other hand, digital image sensor, CCD is made out of silicon. The silicon plate holds millions of photocells sensitive to light. The imaging technique makes use of the photoelectric effect. The liberated electrons are gathered in a cell which functions as a well. Each cell behaves as an image point, a pixel. Larger the number of pixels, more qulity the picture would be. A CCD with 1280X1024 (row by column) cells yields a capacity of 1.3 megapixels (1.3 million pixels). This technology has been applied in digital photography. This is the technology of electronic imaging. Today, whenever photo, video or television is used digital image sensors are usually involved in the process. The research of Smith and  Boyle is based on digital imaging.

Thus the achievement of digital imaging technology due to Boyle and Smith could flourish on the earth and the space via the technology of optical fiber due to Kao. The joint application of the finding of these three Nobel laureates could make the world within a small room. The society would be very much grateful to Kao, Smith and Boyle.



Kul Prasad Dahal
Associate Professor and Head
Dpt. of Physics, PNC
Pokhara, Nepal