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From: Lasse Langwadt <llc@fonz.dk>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: how the laser happened
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2024 22:45:25 +0200
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On 6/21/24 15:05, john larkin wrote:
> There was a thread somewhere above about photon wave/particle duality.
> 
> 
> This is worth reading:
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/How-Laser-Happened-Adventures-Scientist/dp/0195153766
> 
> Einstein, in one of his fits of genius, predicted in around 1916 that
> under the right conditions, a photon could pass by an excited atom and
> the atom would kick in another photon, or add to the wave amplitude,
> depending on how you feel about these things. He called it stimulated
> emission. He also declared that the laws of thermodynamics made this
> effect impossible to use in practical situations.
> 
> In 1951, Charles Townes invented a work-around trick and built the
> maser, a gaseous microwave oscillator. His superiors thought he was
> crazy to dispute Einstein and almost threw him out of grad school, but
> it worked.
> 
> In 1960, Theodore Maiman at HRL made the first ruby laser, and Bell
> Labs soonafter made a HeNe.
> 
> What's interesting is that any decent neon sign shop could have built
> a HeNe laser in 1920.
> 

you could build a laser in your living room if you want to
http://jarrodkinsey.org/co2laser/co2laser.html