The Birth of the Laser

OCT 01, 1988

The idea of generating coherent radiation at optical frequencies was conceived in late 1957; by the end of 1960 there were five realizations of the laser idea.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881155

Joan Lisa Bromberg

In a recent study of early radio, Hugh G. J. Aitken (Amherst College) wrote: “We are inclined to think of invention as an act rather than a process because of the bias built into our patent laws. If property rights in a new discovery are to be secured, it is important to be able to establish priority in time…. This bias, however, should not be allowed to corrupt our historical interpretations…. [Invention is] a process with considerable duration in time, one to which many individuals contribute in a substantial way.” The birth of the laser was such a process. In this account, which I confine to events in the United States, I take the duration of the process to be the period between September 1957, when Charles H. Townes of Columbia University first wrote into his notebook his preliminary ideas for “a maser at optical frequencies,” and December 1960, when Ali Javan, William Bennett and Donald Herriott of Bell Telephone Laboratories operated the first continuous laser. The people I include will be those who had initiated substantial laser research programs before July 1960, when Theodore H. Maiman of Hughes Research Laboratories announced his ruby laser. I shall review the work of these scientists and address two questions: First, what drew these people into laser research? Second, why were they able to command the resources needed to pursue it?

This article is only available in PDF format

References

1. H. G. J. Aitken, The Continuous Wave: Technology and American Radio, 1900–1932, Princeton U.P., Princeton, N.J. (1985), p. 548.
See T. S. Kuhn, Science 136, 760 (1962).https://doi.org/SCIEAS
2. C. H. Townes to R. Shelton, 9 June 1986, C. H. Townes papers.
3. A. L. Schawlow, C. H. Townes, Phys. Rev. 112, 1940 (1958).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
4. A. L. Schawlow, in Impact of Basic Research on Technology, B. Kursunoglu, A. Perlmutter, eds., Plenum Press, New York (1973), p. 128.
5. ‘Company Profile: TRG Incorporated,’ Microwave Journal, September 1961. R. Cushman, Aviation Week, 8 July 1957, p. 99. The quoted phrase is from the Aviation Week article.
6. Interview with A. Javan by J. Hecht, Lasers & Applications, October 1985, p. 49.
7. W. R. BennettJr., Appl. Optics Suppl. on Optical Masers 1, 39 (1962).
8. J. H. Sanders to R. Kompfner, 10 January 1958 and 4 November 1958, and R. Kompfner to J. H. Sanders, 17 October 1958, R. Kompfner papers, box 7, folders 5 and 7, AT&T Bell Laboratories Archives.
9. J. H. Sanders, Phys. Rev. Lett. 3, 86 (1959). https://doi.org/PRLTAO
Memoir by G. D. Boyd for the Laser History Project, 1 May 1986.
10. The Ann Arbor Conference on Optical Pumping, 15–18 June 1959, Research Library of the Westinghouse Research Center.
I. Wieder, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 30, 995 (1959).https://doi.org/RSINAK
11. C. H. Townes, ed., Quantum Electronics: A Symposium, Columbia U.P., New York (1960).
12. R. Sobel, IBM, Colossus in Transition, Times Books, New York (1981), p. 159.
13. Industrial Research Laboratories of the United States…, 9th edition, 1950,
Bulletin of the National Research Council, no. 120, November 1950.
E. Mansfield, The Economics of Technological Change, W. W. Norton, New York (1968), p. 45.
14. See M. B. W. Graham, in Research on Technological Innovation, Management and Policy, vol. 2, R. S. Rosenbloom, ed. (1985), p. 47.
15. A. L. Schawlow, in Quantum Electronics: A Symposium, C. H. Townes, ed., Columbia U.P., New York (1960), p. 553.
16. H. O. Stekler, The Structure and Performance of the Aerospace Industry, U. of Calif. P., Berkeley (1965).
R. Fernandez, Excess Profits: The Rise of United Technologies, Addison‐Wesley, Reading, Mass. (1983).
17. T. Maiman, Nature 187, 493 (1960).https://doi.org/NATUAS
18. R. J. Collins, D. F. Nelson, A. L. Schawlow, W. Bond, C. G. B. Garrett, W. Kaiser, Phys. Rev. Lett. 5, 303 (1960).https://doi.org/PRLTAO
19. P. P. Sorokin, IBM J. Res. Dev. 23, 476 (1979). https://doi.org/IBMJAE
P. P. Sorokin, M. Stevenson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 5, 557 (1960). https://doi.org/PRLTAO
P. P. Sorokin, M. Stevenson, IBM J. Res. Dev. 5, 56 (1961).https://doi.org/IBMJAE
20. I. Wieder, L. R. Sarles, Phys. Rev. Lett. 6, 95 (1961). https://doi.org/PRLTAO
A. L. Schawlow, G. E. Devlin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 6, 96 (1961).https://doi.org/PRLTAO
21. See D. J. Kevles, The Physicists, Knopf, New York (1978), and the articles by P. Forman, S. W. Leslie and A. A. Needell in Hist. Stud. Phys. Biol. Sci. 18:1 (1987).
22. R. W. Seidel, Hist. Stud. Phys. Biol. Sci. 18:1, 112 (1987).

More about the Authors

Joan Lisa Bromberg. MIT.