City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics

Chapter 8
NOTES TO PAGES 92–95 295
1. ‘‘Light amplifier extends spectrum,’’ Electronics, July 22, 1960, p. 43.
2. Strictly speaking, some other sources generate light that is coherent over
very short distances, and some lasers are not very coherent. However, lasers remain
the most practical sources of coherent light.
3. Internal memo by W. A. Tyrell, quoted in Rudolf Kompfner, ‘‘Optics at Bell
Laboratories—optical communications,’’ Applied Optics 11, No. 11, pp. 2412–
2425 (Nov. 1972).
4. For more details, see Jeff Hecht, Laser Pioneers (Academic Press, Boston,
1991).
5. Townes grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, the home town of Will Hicks,
and like Hicks attended Furman University before leaving for graduate school. At
Furman, Hicks was a classmate of Townes’s younger sister, Aurelia, who later
married Schawlow. While they share sharp minds, fertile technical imaginations,
and the same small-city southern background, the two have contrasting styles.
Townes is a gentleman of the old school, scholarly and dignified; Hicks is casual
and folksy, with an unmistakably southern tone to his voice. Townes has spent
his life in academia, publishing widely in scholarly journals and serving on many
government science-policy panels. Hicks has spent most of his life as an entrepreneur
and inventor, collecting over a hundred patents and starting a series of
companies.
6. Arthur L. Schawlow and Charles H. Townes, ‘‘Infrared and optical masers,’’
Physical Review 112, p. 1940 (1958).
7. The story of laser development is a rich tale in itself. For highlights, see
Hecht, Laser Pioneers, and Joan Bromberg, The Laser in America (MIT Press, Cambridge,
1991).
8. The journal’s eminent and opinionated founding editor, Samuel Goudsmit,
was annoyed by a series of papers reporting minor advances, and Maiman had
published a related paper in the journal just weeks before. Hecht, Laser Pioneers;
Bromberg, The Laser in America’’ (p. 92).
9. Theodore H. Maiman, ‘‘Stimulated optical radiation in ruby,’’ Nature 187,
p. 493 (Aug. 6, 1960).
10. ‘‘Light amplifier.’’
11. ‘‘Scientists demonstrate optical maser,’’ Electronics, Oct. 21, 1960, p. 38.
(Bell Labs stubbornly continued to call the laser an ‘‘optical maser’’ although
others quickly adopted the name laser.)
12. R. N. Schwartz and Charles H. Townes, ‘‘Interstellar and interplanetary
communication by optical masers,’’ Nature 190, pp. 205–208 (Apr. 15,
1961).
13. Hecht, Laser Pioneers (interview with Ali Javan).
14. Richard Smith, telephone interview, June 11, 1997.
15. Ivan Kaminow, interview, July 19, 1995.
16. James P. Gordon, telephone interview, July 5, 1994.
17. S. E. Miller and L. C. Tillotson, ‘‘Optical transmission research,’’ Applied
Optics 5, pp. 1538–1549 (Oct. 1966).
18. Strictly speaking, by over 60 decibels (decibels are explained on pages
115–116). Miller and Tillotson, ‘‘Optical transmission research.’’
19. R. Meredith, Royal Radar and Signals Establishment, ‘‘Unguided optical
propagation in the atmosphere and under-sea,’’ paper presented at the Conference