Maiman, Theodore

The first known laser was made by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California, in 1960, but the seeds of this breakthrough were planted years before. In 1917 Albert Einstein, through his work on the quantum theory of light, theorized that stimulated emission of light radiation could occur. The idea was forgotten, though, until the middle of the century. 

Theodore H. Maiman with a ruby that was used in early laser studies in the 196Qs. (Corbis Corporation)... 

The first optical laser, the ruby laser, was built in 1960 by Theodore Maiman. Since that time lasers have had a profound impact on many areas of science and indeed on our everyday lives. The monochromaticity, coherence, high-intensity, and widely variable pulse-duration properties of lasers have led to dramatic improvements in optical measurements of all kinds and have proven especially valuable in spectroscopic studies in chemistry and physics. Because of their robustness and high power outputs, solid-state lasers are the workhorse devices in most of these applications, either as primary sources or, via nonlinear crystals or dye media, as frequency-shifted sources. In this experiment the 1064-mn near-infrared output from a solid-state Nd YAG laser will be frequency doubled to 532 nm to serve as a fast optical pump of a raby crystal. Ruby consists of a dilute solution of chromium 3 ions in a sapphire (AI2O3) lattice and is representative of many metal ion-doped solids that are useful as solid-state lasers, phosphors, and other luminescing materials. The radiative and nonradiative relaxation processes in such systems are important in determining their emission efficiencies, and these decay paths for the electronically excited Cr ion will be examined in this experiment. 

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) had its origins in the interferometer developed by Michelson in 1880 and experiments by astrophysicists some seventy years later. A commercial FTIR instrument required development of the laser (1960, by Theodore H. Maiman [1927- ], Hughes Aircraft), refined optics, and computer hardware and software. The Fourier transform takes data collected in time domain and converts them to frequency domain, the normal infrared (IR) spectrum. FTIR provided vasdy improved signal-to-noise ratios allowing routine analyses of microgram samples. 

US physicist Theodore Maiman (1927-2007) invents the ruby laser... 

The term laser is an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. A typical laser emits light in a narrow, low-divergence beam, with a narrow wavelength spectrum ( monochromatic light) [1-6]. The first working laser was demonstrated by Theodore Maiman on May 16, 1960 at Hughes Research Laboratories. 

In 1960, Theodore Maiman of the Hughes Research Laboratories produced the first laser using a ruby crystal as the amplifier and a flash lamp as the energy source. The helical flash lamp surrounded a rod-shaped ruby crystal, and the optical cavity was formed by coating the flattened ends of the ruby rod with a highly reflecting material. In operation, an intense red beam emerged from the ends of the rod when the flash lamp was initiated. 

In 1960, American physicist Theodore Maiman of Hughes Research Laboratories developed the pulsed ruby laser. This laser used rubies to operate and generated powerful bursts of light lasting only nanoseconds. This laser, which acted much like a camera s... 

Ruby laser (Theodore Harold Maiman) Maiman produces a ruby laser, the world s first visible light laser. 

Continuously operating ruby laser (Willard S. Boyle and Don Nelson) The invention relies on an arc lamp shining continuously (rather than the flash lamp used by Theodore Maiman in 1960). 

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