History of Lasers
Although laser technology may seem a relatively new phenomenon, research into this technological development has been going on for years. It is widely considered that it was in fact Albert Einstein who started the ball rolling here in 1917 when he wrote a paper that outlined the theoretical principles of stimulated emission which underpins laser technology.
The practical application of this theory, however, was to take a little more time to come to fruition. In fact, before laser technology was given a reliable practical application the scientific community invented the maser first in the 1950s. Like the laser the maser worked on amplification but this technology amplified microwave inputs. Developments in this technology, however, paved the way for the future development of the laser.
By the 1950s scientists Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow started investigating a concept that they called the optical maser. This concept utilised visible light. Further developments were made in tandem with Gordon Gould, a research student, who also later went on to investigate using an open resonator in this kind of technology which was to prove important later. Gould was also the person to come up with the word laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) in the late 1950s.
It is thought that the first laser that actually consistently worked was put together in the early 1960s by Theodore H. Maiman. The laser here did not emit a steady beam of laser light but gave out pulsed light instead. Maiman’s laser was a solid state model - later developments by Ali Javan introduced the first gas laser model and the idea of the diode laser.
A working diode laser was created in 1962, again the laser here pulsed rather than emitted a steady beam. It was to take a while longer before a steady beam was consistently established. In the following decades laser technology was refined and further developed by various scientists.