Charles K. Kao was an electrical engineer whose work helped establish the feasibility of low-loss optical fiber communication. With George Alfred Hockham, he analyzed dielectric-fibre guidance at optical frequencies, including the losses and information-carrying limitations of the medium.[ref]
Dielectric-fibre surface waveguides for optical frequencies by Charles Kuen Kao and George Alfred Hockham. 1966, synopsis and introduction
The important engineering question was how to turn a physically guided mode into a practical long-distance signal path. Their analysis examined absorption, bending loss and dispersion alongside mode behaviour. This linked the electromagnetic design of a waveguide to the properties of the glass and to the timing of signals, rather than treating transparency as a sufficient description.[ref]
Dielectric-fibre surface waveguides for optical frequencies by Charles Kuen Kao and George Alfred Hockham. Loss and information-capacity discussion
Portrait of Charles K. Kao
. David Dobkin. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source.
2009 Nobel Prize lecture
. Poor Charles was too debilitated by Alzheimer's disease to give the talk himself! But if you've got a pulse, you can get the prize, so all good.
Charles K. Kao, often referred to as the "father of fiber optics," was a Chinese-born physicist and electrical engineer renowned for his pioneering work in the development of fiber optic communication systems. Born on November 4, 1933, in Shanghai, China, he later moved to Hong Kong and then to the United States, where he completed his education.
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