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From: Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: how the laser happened
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2024 23:09:06 -0000 (UTC)
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Lasse Langwadt <llc@fonz.dk> wrote:
> 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

You can build a monster N2 laser using FR4 and some flashing copper, plus a
low current HV supply. See C. L. Stong, Scientific American, June 1974. 

Cheers 

Phil Hobbs 

-- 
Dr Philip C D Hobbs  Principal Consultant  ElectroOptical Innovations LLC /
Hobbs ElectroOptics  Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics