In 2020, the laser pointer will celebrate its 60th anniversary. Here, the photonics media presents a timeline of some of the more famous scientific achievements related to the optical amplification of stimulated emission (laser). An interactive version of the laser timeline is also provided, as well as an introductory manual about laser principles, which details how the laser works.
It is different from other types of light because it emits space, time or coherent light. Different machines such as laser pointers, laser cutters, tools to determine distances, speeds and targets, and other technological arrays all use different forms of lasers. The most common ones in our daily life are hand-held lasers, which have spatial coherence. After years of theoretical work by researchers and scientists, Theodore H. Maiman of the research laboratory invented the laser in 1960.
If you do not understand that light is a form of electromagnetic radiation, it is impossible to use laser engraver. Max Planck won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918 for his discovery of fundamental energy quantum. Planck is engaged in thermodynamic research, trying to explain why the "black body" radiation that absorbs light of all wavelengths does not radiate light of all frequencies equally when heated.
The actual inventor of the laser is controversial, but everyone can agree that the concept originally came from Einstein, who was interested in light waves but did not invent it. In 1958, at Bell Labs, the first theory of laser generation was created. A game began to be invented, and several competitors competed for the laser throne. Who's winning? no one knows. To be honest, in 1960, Theodore Maiman of the Hughes Aircraft Company used ruby as a laser medium to make the "first laser." However, Gordon Gould (and even the first person to use the term "laser") received a patent for the "first laser" in 1977. Laboratory, various blue laser pointer, many inventors and chaotic situation.
Charles Townes of Columbia University studied molecules as a physicist in the 1930s. During the war, he worked on radar as an electronic engineer. The Office of Naval Research urged him and other physicists to work together to invent a method to create a stronger radiation beam of shorter wavelength. In 1951, he found a solution. Under the right conditions (for example, in a resonant cavity, such as a resonant cavity used to generate radar waves), the correct collection of molecules can generate radiation on its own. He is applying the engineer's insights to the physicist's atomic system. Towns handed the question to postdoc Herbert Zieg and graduate student James P. Gordon. By 1954, their equipment began to work. Townes calls it MASER, which is used to "amplify microwaves through radiated radiation."