Millennium Technology Prize nomination for fibre amplifier

Emmanuel Desurvire, Randy Giles and David Payne have been shortlisted, along with three other finalists, for the 2008 Millennium Technology Prize, for their work on Erbium-doped fibre amplifiers (EDFAs). The Finnish prize, worth one million euros, is awarded every two years for technological innovation leading to the improvement in quality of human life, and is open to candidates from all fields of technology, from around the world.

EDFA's are comprised of optical fibre doped with the rare earth element, erbium. A diode laser is typically used to pump the fibre optically, thus producing a gain medium for light passing through the fibre, resulting in amplification of the light. These devices have radically improved long-distance, fibre-optic communication, since there is no need to convert the optical signal into an electrical one and then re-transmit it with a second laser source. Optical fibres are capable of transmitting light over very long distances, but the deleterious effects of attenuation means that signals need to be boosted every 500 to 800km. EDFA's, first developed in 1987, are now a critical component in the global telecommunications infrastructure, and are responsible for the massive reach and digital transmission capacity of the internet we know today.