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 Kerry
Vahala becomes first Ted
and Ginger Jenkins Professor in Information Science and Technology
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Ted
Jenkins and his wife, Ginger, have established the Ted and Ginger
Jenkins Professorship in Information Science and Technology. Vahala
is its first occupant. He conducts research on the physics of
photonic devices that can transmit data using light rather than
electricity.
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"Networks,
high-speed electronic processors, and light-wave communications
are undergoing a fusion that will surely have a positive impact
on our lives in the 21st Century," says Vahala. "The
Ted and Ginger Jenkins Chair in Information Science and Technology
recognizes that something new is emerging in that fusion and that
Caltech's leadership role is only beginning. IST is not only affecting
the way that we communicate and our productivity, but is broadly
influencing how we view information, networks, and devices.
In
February 2004, Vahala announced the development of a tiny laser,
called a Raman laser, that is 1,000 times more efficient than
previous devices. The device could have significant applications
for telecommunications and other areas where compact, highly efficient,
and tunable lasers are desirable. The laser incorporates a small
spherical glass bead and a stretched fiber-
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optic wire, and is especially efficient because of the way it
stores light inside the microsphere, or resonator, and by the
manner in which the stretched optical wire permits efficient coupling
of light into the sphere.
As
a result, very weak signals applied to the sphere from the fiber-optic
wire can build to enormous intensities within the sphere itself.
Raman lasers and amplifiers are important because they can operate
over a very broad range of wavelengths. Raman amplifiers are already
used widely in commercial long-distance fiber communications networks
because of this wavelength flexibility.
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