The principle of laser technology and its application was first known in 1917, when physicist Albert Einstein described the theory of stimulated emission. However, it was not until the late 1940s that engineers began to utilize this principle for practical purposes. At the onset of the 1950’s several different engineers were working towards the harnessing of energy using the principal of stimulated emission.

At the University of Columbia was Charles Townes, at the University of Maryland was Joseph Weber and at the Lebedev Laboratories in Moscow were Alexander Prokhorov and Nikolai G Basov.

At this stage the engineers were working towards the creation of what was termed a MASER (Microwave Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation), a device that amplified microwaves as opposed to light and soon found use in microwave communication systems. Townes and the other engineers believed it to be possible create an optical maser, a device for creating powerful beams of light using higher frequency energy to stimulate what was to become termed the lasing medium. Despite the pioneering work of Townes and Prokhorov it was left to Theodore Maiman in 1960 it invent the first Laser using a lasing medium of ruby that was stimulated using high energy flashes of intense light .

Both Townes and Prokhorov were later awarded the Nobel Science Prize in 1964 for their endeavours.

The Laser was a remarkable technical breakthrough, but in its early years it was something of a technology without a purpose. It was not powerful enough for use in the beam weapons envisioned by the military, and its usefulness for transmitting information through the atmosphere was severely hampered by its inability to penetrate clouds and rain. Almost immediately, though, some began to find uses for it. Maiman and his colleagues developed some of the first Laser weapons sighting systems and other engineers developed powerful lasers for use in surgery and other areas where a moderately powerful, pinpoint source of heat was needed. Today, for example, Lasers are used in corrective eye surgery, providing a precise source of heat for cutting and cauterising tissue.

For a full and detailed explanation of the Laser through the years see the Outline History below.

 

Outline History of the Development of the Laser
Date	Name	Achievement
1916	Albert Einstein	Theory of light emission. Concept of Stimulated Emission.
1928	Rudolph W Landenburg	Confirmed existence of stimulated emission and Negative Absorption.
1940	Valentin A Fabrikant	Noted possibility of Population Inversion
1947	Willis E Lamb R C Retherford	Induced Emission suspect in Hydrogen Spectra. First demonstration of stimulated emission.
1951	Charles H Townes	The inventor of the MASER (Microwave Amplification of Stimulated Emission of Radiation) at Columbia University – First device based on stimulated emission, awarded Nobel prize 1964.
1951	Joseph Weber	Independent inventor of MASER at University of Maryland.
1951	Alexander Prokhorov Nikolai G Basov	Independent inventors of MASER at Lebedev Laboratories, Moscow. Awarded Nobel prize 1964
1954	Robert H Dicke	“Optical Bomb” patent. Based on pulsed population inversion for superradiance and separately Fabry-Perot resonant chamber for “Molecular Amplification and Generation system”.
1956	Nicolas Bloembergan	First proposal for a three-level solid state MASER at Harvard University.
1957	Gordon Gould	First document defining a LASER; notarised by a candy store owner. Credited with patent rights in the 1970s.
1958	Arthur L Schawlow Charles H Townes	First detailed paper describing “Optical MASER”. Credited with invention of LASER. From Columbia University.
1960	Arthur L Schawlow Charles H Townes	LASER patent No. 2,929,922.
1960	Theodore Maiman	Invented first working LASER based on Ruby. May 16th 1960, Hughes Research Laboratories.
1960	Peter P Sorokin Mirek Stevenson	First Uranium LASER – Second LASER overall. Nov. 1960 IBM Labs.
1961	A G Fox and T Li	Theoretical analysis of optical resonators at Bell Labs.
1961	Ali Javan William Bennet Jr. Donald Herriot	Invented Helium Neon (HeNe) LASER at Bell Labs.
1962	Robert Hall	Invention of semi-conductor LASER at General Electric Labs.
1964	J E Geusic H M Markos L G Van Uiteit	Inventor of first working Nd:YAG LASER at Bell Labs.
1964	Kumar N Patel	Inventor of CO2 LASER at Bell Labs.
1964	William Bridges	Invention of Argon Ion LASER a Hughes Labs.
1965	George Pimentel J V V Kasper	First chemical LASER at University of California, Berkley.
1966	William Silfvast Grant Fowles and Hopkins	First metal vapour LASER – Zn/Cd – at University of Utah
1966	Peter Sorokin, John Lankard	First Dye Laser action demonstrated at IBM Labs.
1969	G M Delco	First industrial installation of three lasers for automobile application.
1970	Nikolai Basov’s Group	First Excimer LASER at Lebedev Labs, Moscow based on Xenon (Xe) only.
1974	J J Ewing and Charles Brau	First rare gas halide excimer at Avco Everet Labs.
1977	John M J Madey’s Group	First free electron laser at Stanford University.
1980	Geoffrey Pert’s Group	First report of X-ray lasing action, Hull University, UK.
1981	Arthur Schawlow Nicolas Bloembergen	Awarded Nobel Physics Prize for work in non-linear optics and spectroscopy.
1984	Dennis Matthew’s Group	First reported demonstration of a “laboratory” X-ray laser from Lawrence Livermore Labs.