Laser History

To project a stream of powerful energy has long been a dream of man.  In “The War of the Worlds,“ early science fiction writer, H.G. Wells, wrote of a laser-like weapon used by the Martians against humans.  In newspaper reports as early as 1924, there were stories of electrical genius, Nikola Tesla, inventing a “death ray” which could destroy airplanes at distances of 250 miles.  Although Tesla had immense intellectual capacity, and his research into alternating current is one of the pillars of modern technology, there appears to be no hard evidence that he created any kind of directed energy weapon (DEW).  He certainly worked with light in some of his research, but he was not the inventor of what we call the laser. 

That honor most likely goes to Dr. T.H. Maiman at the Hughes Aircraft Company who, in 1960, placed a ruby rod inside of a coiled flashtube and produced a red burst of coherent light, at a wavelength of 694 nm (nanometers), which was powerful enough to burn a hole through a Gillette razor blade.  Sir Isaac Newton once said: “If I have seen further than [others] it is by standing upon the shoulders of Giants.“  Preceding Maiman’s monumental achievement was centuries of research and thinking by many great minds, not the least of which was Albert Einstein.  The name “LASER” can be attributed to Gordon Gould while he was working on his doctorate at Columbia University.  It is an acronym for “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation” and refers to an optical source that emits photons in a coherent beam.  Here are some links to excellent resources on the history and technology of lasers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed-energy_weapon#The_beam_being_absorbed_by_obscuration_in_the_air
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser
http://ksks.essortment.com/historyoflaser_rsny.htm
http://inventors.about.com/od/lstartinventions/a/laser.htm

Maiman’s laser used a ruby rod which was ground to the appropriate length and had one end fully silvered and the other end 99% silvered, thereby creating a resonant optical cavity.  It

was considered a solid state laser.  Later, other scientists found way to stimulate the emission of coherent photons from gas, and a whole new breed of lasers emerged.  The most widely used gas lasers are those containing a mixture of helium and neon (HeNe lasers).  As even more research into lasers was done, scientists discovered how to stimulate coherent photon emission by a mixture of chemicals, and the chemical laser was born.  As semiconductor technology evolved, discoveries were made which led to the most widely used type of laser - the diode laser - which is so prevalent today in many types of electronic devices, including DVD burners, which contain diodes with outputs of several hundred milliwatts.  The laser modules manufactured by WarnLaser use the diode type of laser.