1960Reputable sourceWell documented
The Laser
On the timeline · around 1960 ·
What happened
In 1960 the first working laser was built, based on the maser–laser principle developed by Charles Townes and others from Einstein's 1917 idea of 'stimulated emission.' A laser makes atoms release light in perfect step, producing an intense, pure, tightly focused beam unlike any natural light.
Why it matters
The laser turned an obscure quantum prediction into one of the most useful devices ever made — at the heart of fibre-optic communications, surgery, manufacturing, barcode scanners, and DVD players. Townes shared the 1964 Nobel Prize for the underlying physics.
Sources
- The Nobel Prize. Charles H. Townes – Facts (Nobel Prize in Physics 1964) · Reputable source