July 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Paper 5033E ‘Dielectric-fibre surface waveguides for optical frequencies’ by Charles Kao and George Hockham; a visionary paper that was pivotal to the birth of long-distance optical fibre communication, earning Charles Kao one half of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics.
The paper was one of the seminal developments in modern telecommunications and bootstrapped the world of optical fibre communications. It formally presented the concept and transmission properties of core-clad dielectric waveguides for carrying light providing the blueprint for modern-day optical fibres.
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