LASER, which is an abbreviation constructed from words: light amplification by stimulated

emission of radiation, which is a device that emits monochromatic beams of light. Ever since
the ancient times, people considered that beams of light carried some mysterious powers. It
was around the start of the 20th century when radiation became a topic of interest of many
notable scientists of that period. Einstein was one of the first scientist to give a theoretical
foundation of laser technology. He introduced the concept of stimulated emission in 1917.
This theory explains the interaction between a photon and a molecule or an atom. After the
interaction, the photon causes the emission of a second photon that has the same frequency
and the same direction. Scientists had the knowledge and resources to make a laser in the
1920s, but the big breakthrough came in the 1950s after the WWII when many scientist
started experimenting with radar technology in order to make a powerful beam of radiation.
One of the pioneers in laser technology was Charles Townes. It was in the 1953 when Charles
Townes and Jim Gordon created the predecessor of the laser, called MASER, which is an
acronym for "Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation". Townes had
predicted a useful characteristic for the radiation from the device: it would be at a single
frequency, which turned out to be true in the future. Masers had been useful, but more in
scientific research than in military or industry. Townes thought intensively about an infrared
maser but infrared rays were hard to manage, and he soon abounded this idea and started
experimenting with visible light. In 1957, Charles Townes and his colleague and brother-inlaw Arthur Schawlow constructed an optical cavity by placing two reflecting mirrors parallel
to each other, and positioning the amplifying medium in between. The next year they have
submitted a patent application for this invention and they called it an optical maser, and they
published a seminal Physical Review paper on their findings. This paper generated significant
interest among other scientists, especially ones who attempted to build the first laser. The
graduate student at Columbia University called Gordon Gould came up with the same
arrangement as Townes and Schawlow, and he was the first to use the name laser for "Light
Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation". He also submitted a patent for his work
in 1959 but the US Patent Office denied him. In 1960, the award went into hands of
Schawlow and Townes for their optical maser. This all led to a big lawsuit, often called the
"Thirty Year Patent War" where scientific reputation was the biggest stake. It all finished in
1987 when Gould won the first important lawsuit victory. However, this matter is still
unresolved because many historians and scientists do not know whom to credit for the
invention of the laser. After Schawlow and Towns published their paper Physical Review in
1958 many scientist raced to build the first working laser. Theodore Maiman was the first to
develop the first working laser, ahead of notable scientist such as Townes, Arthur Schawlow
and Gould. Mainman applied an energy source to stimulate atoms in a ruby to higher energy
levels, which he demonstrated in May 1960. This laser was so simple to develop that other
groups duplicated the achievement in several weeks. In the 1970s, the laser started to make an
important impact on our society. The two most important applications of the laser in the 1970s
were the bar code scanners that appeared in 1974 and the laser printers in 1971. Fifty- six
years after the first laser, the impact of its discovery has largely affected the lives of people in
modern society.