The Invention of the Laser

Abstract

In this chapter, I describe a scientific rivalry at Columbia University’s physics department in the days of the 1950s before and when the laser invented, and the race to build a laser eventually won by a scientist in California in 1960. It tracks the arc from Charles Townes’ success in amplifying microwaves with a device he called the maser, to graduate student Gordon Gould’s realization of how shorter and more powerful light waves could also be amplified. The chapter describes Gould’s notebook, written in 1957, diagramming an optically pumped laser. In the same notebook, he coined the word laser, an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, and suggested possible uses for the coherent light beams he imagined. The chapter also covers Gould’s wish to patent and profit from his invention, his mistaken belief that he had to build a laser to receive a patent, and the flirtation with radical politics that barred him from the laboratory where he worked once the government classified the laser project that it was funding. Townes and his colleague and brother-in-law Arthur Schawlow, both eventual Physics Nobelists, meanwhile filed an application and received a patent for what they called an optical maser. Theodore Maiman at Hughes Laboratories built the first working laser in 1960, as the chapter describes. It concludes with the results of Gould’s long battle to win basic laser patents and his eventual success.