History development

The word laser in English is derived from the original acronym LASER. LASER means “stimulated radiation optical amplifier”.

The key concepts in laser technology have been established as early as 1917 when Einstein proposed “stimulated radiation”. The word laser was once controversial; Gordon Gould was the first person on record to use this term.

In 1953, the American physicist Charles Had Townes and his student Arthur Showlow made the first microwave quantum amplifier and obtained highly coherent microwave beams.

In 1958, C.H. Towns and A.L. Xiao Luo extended the principle of microwave quantum amplifiers to the optical frequency range.

In 1960, T.H. Theodore Maiman made the first ruby laser.

In 1961, Iranian scientist A. Jia Wen and others made a helium-neon laser.

In 1962, R.N. Hall and others created a gallium arsenide semiconductor laser.

In 2013, researchers at the National Laser Center of the South African Scientific and Industrial Research Council developed the world’s first digital laser, opening up new prospects for laser applications. The research results were published in the British journal Nature Communications on August 2, 2013.

Laser patent battle

The laser was first built by the scientist Gordon Gould in 1958, but the relevant papers were not published until 1959, but he was rejected in the process of applying for a patent because his mentor was Charles, the inventor of the maser (microwave resonator) technology Townes (invented microwave output technology). Due to the influence of the tutor, the patent has not been approved. Patents for lasers were not granted in the United States until 1977.

The long-term patent battle is more beneficial to Gould, because when he obtained the patent, the laser has already been used on a large scale. Due to the limitation of the patent protection period, if the patent is approved as soon as the application is filed, it will not be profitable because the application is not widespread. To much money.