James P. Gordon

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James Power Gordon (born March 20, 1928 in New York City , † June 21, 2013 ) was an American physicist who studied quantum optics .

Maser components in front of a photo of Gordon next to Townes (left) with the second burl, National Museum of American History, Washington DC

biography

Gordon was the son of a corporate attorney (at Kraftco) and attended Exeter Academy. He studied physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Bachelor 1949) and Columbia University , where he made his master's degree in 1951 and received his doctorate in 1955 under Charles H. Townes . From 1955 until his retirement in 1996 he was with Bell Laboratories . From 1958 to 1980 he headed the department for research in quantum electronics (another name for quantum optics), first in Murray Hill and then in Holmdel, New Jersey. In 1962/63 he was visiting professor at the University of California, San Diego .

Gordon also took part in competitions in platform tennis (see paddle tennis ) and won the US championships in men's doubles in 1959.

His brother Robert S. Gordon Jr. (1926–1984) was an epidemiologist who set up a cholera clinic in East Pakistan.

Gordon was married to former Bell Labs programmer Susanna Bland Waldner since 1960 and has a son and two daughters with her.

Scientific work

Gordon was involved in the development of measles as a student of Charles Townes (and the post-doc Herbert Zeiger ) in 1953/54 . He received his doctorate from Columbia University with Townes. Later he was at Bell Laboratories . Even afterwards he dealt with the theory of the laser (the optical version of the maser), for example in the investigation of confocal resonators (with curved mirrors).

He later investigated the propagation of solitons in glass fibers and interference effects in the propagation of laser pulses in glass fibers (Gordon-Haus effect with Hermann A. Haus 1986). With LF Mollenauer and RH Stolen he reported on the first observation of solitons in glass fibers and he explained the frequency shift of the solitons. With Herwig Kogelnik he developed a theory of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) in optical fibers.

In the 1980s he worked with Arthur Ashkin on the theory of atoms in optical traps. He developed the first theory of forces and angular momentum from the interaction of radiation in dielectric media. and with Ashkin he developed the theory of the diffusion of atoms in optical traps.

Gordon dealt with quantum information theory as early as the 1960s . In 1962 he investigated the influence of quantum mechanics on the capacity of information channels, for which Claude Shannon had established a formula in the classic case. The conjecture made by him about a quantum mechanical version of the Shannon formula was proven by AS Holevo in the 1990s .

He has been a member of the National Academy of Engineering since 1985 , the National Academy of Sciences since 1988, and IEEE Fellow since 1998 . In 2001 he received the Willis E. Lamb Award and in 2002 the Frederic Ives Medal . He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a fellow and honorary member of the Optical Society of America , whose Max Born Award he received in 1991.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary to James P. Gordon in: Asbury Park Press
  2. ↑ Gordon, Zeiger, Townes Physical Review, Vol. 95, 1954, p. 282, the same The Maser — New Type of Microwave Amplifier, Frequency Standard, and Spectrometer , Physical Review Vol. 99, 1955, pp. 1264-1274. See JP Gordon Reflections on the First Maser , Optics & Photonics News, Volume 21, 2010, No. 5, pp. 34-41
  3. ↑ GD Boyd, Gordon Confocal multimode resonator for millimiter through optical wavelength masers , Bell Syst. Tech. J., Vol. 40, 1961, pp. 489-508
  4. ^ Haus, Gordon Random walk of coherently amplified solitons in optical fiber transmission , Opt. Lett., Volume 11, 1986, pp. 665-667
  5. ↑ Gordon, Mollenauer, Stolen Experimental observation of Picosecond Pulse Narrowing and Solitons in Optical Fibers , Phys. Rev. Lett., Vol. 45, 1980, pp. 1095-1098
  6. ↑ Gordon Theory of the soliton self-frequency shift , Volume 11, 1986, pp. 662-664
  7. ↑ Gordon, Kogelnik PMD fundamentals: Polarization mode dispersion in optical fibers , Proc. National Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 97, 2000, p. 4541
  8. ↑ Gordon Radiation forces and momenta in dielectric media , JP Gordon, Phys. Rev. A, Vol. 8, 1973, pp. 14-21
  9. ^ Ashkin, Gordon Motion of Atoms in a radiation trap , Phys. Rev. A, Volume 21, 1980, pp. 1606--1617
  10. ^ Gordon Quantum Effects in Communications Systems , Proc. IRE, 1962, pp. 1898-1908, Gordon, PA Miles Quantum electronics and coherent light , Proc. Int. School Phys. Enrico Fermi, Course XXXI, Academic Press, 1964, pp. 156-181
  11. ^ AS Holevo The capacity of the quantum channel with general signal states , IEEE Transactions of Information Theory, Volume 44, 1998, pp. 269-273
personal data
SURNAME Gordon, James P.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gordon, James Power
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH June 21th 2013