Lasers and physics: a pretty good hint

DEC 01, 1982

The monochromaticity, directionality and intensity of laser light make possible spectroscopic investigations of previously unimagined precision whose results give hints of more new physics to come.

DOI: 10.1063/1.2914883

Arthur L. Schawlow

In the early years of lasers, it was common for popular accounts to refer to the laser as “a solution looking for a problem.” That description was sometimes even attributed to me, as though I have tried to point out clearly that I did not believe it. Indeed, any comicstrip artist could think of lots of “real” uses, such as drilling tunnels through mountains, or shooting down Klingons a million miles away. But for such important applications, the capabilities of real lasers were—and still are—pathetically inadequate. For these and many other problems lasers did not provide solutions, but they did give a new and promising place to look for attainable devices that could give answers to worthwhile problems.

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More about the authors

Arthur L. Schawlow, Stanford University.