The history of the laser

Mario Bertolotti0750309113, 9780750309110

Since the invention of the first working laser in 1960, development of these devices has progressed at an unprecedented rate, to the extent that the laser is now a common part of everyday life, from the semiconductor laser used in CD players and telecommunication systems to the high power eximer lasers used in manufacturing processes. This book traces the history of the laser, from the first theoretical predictions of stimulated emission made in the 1920s, through the experimental development of masers and lasers in the 50s and 60s, to the advanced applications of lasers in the present day. Along the way it tells the fascinating and at times controversial story of the people behind the discoveries. Written in a style suitable for the general public, it will be of interest to those working within the laser community, and to anyone with an interest in the history of science.

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Table of contents :
THE HISTORY OF THE LASER……Page 1
CONTENTS……Page 3
PREFACE……Page 4
INTRODUCTION……Page 6
The damage done by Aristotle……Page 7
The rise of modern science……Page 8
Descartes……Page 11
Galileo……Page 12
The physics of Descartes……Page 14
The law of refraction……Page 15
Robert Hooke……Page 18
Table of Contents……Page 0
Christiaan Huygens……Page 20
Isaac Newton……Page 22
Newton and light……Page 25
The great Newtonian physical revolution……Page 27
Newton as a public man……Page 28
Newton’s theory of light……Page 29
Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism……Page 30
The dawn of spectroscopy……Page 36
Atoms……Page 40
The electron shows up……Page 41
The Nobel prize……Page 42
The Balmer formula……Page 43
Rydberg and the combination principle……Page 44
The effect of a magnetic field on the spectral lines……Page 49
The first atom model……Page 51
Radiation and temperature……Page 53
The blackbody……Page 54
The blackbody laws……Page 56
Max Planck and the blackbody law……Page 58
Rayleigh’s law……Page 60
Planck’s law……Page 66
Rutherford and the planetary atom……Page 69
Niels Bohr……Page 72
Bohr and Rutherford’s atom……Page 74
The models developed before Bohr……Page 77
The acceptance of Bohr’s hypothesis……Page 79
The young Einstein……Page 87
Zurich Polytechnic……Page 89
The Patent Office……Page 91
His academic career……Page 92
Professor Einstein……Page 93
Einstein’s private life……Page 95
Relativity theory……Page 96
Einstein and photon statistics……Page 100
Einstein at Princeton……Page 102
The photoelectric effect……Page 106
Stimulated emission……Page 110
The role of stimulated emission in the theory of light dispersion……Page 113
The experimental discovery of electromagnetic waves……Page 120
Marconi and the radio……Page 124
Popov……Page 130
The magnetron……Page 132
The klystron……Page 134
Radar……Page 135
Radar development in Great Britain……Page 136
The cavity magnetron……Page 138
Radar in other countries……Page 140
The first proof of the existence of discrete atomic energy states……Page 157
The development of Bohr’s theory……Page 158
Spatial quantization……Page 162
The exclusion principle……Page 167
The spin of the electron……Page 169
CHAPTER 9: MAGNETIC RESONANCE……Page 173
The resonance method with molecular beams……Page 175
Magnetic relaxation phenomena in solids……Page 178
Magnetic resonance……Page 179
Electronic paramagnetic resonance……Page 185
Atomic clocks……Page 187
Experimental proof of population inversion……Page 191
Negative temperature……Page 192
CHAPTER 10: THE MASER……Page 195
The Weber proposal……Page 198
Townes and the first maser……Page 200
The Russian approach to the maser……Page 207
The three-level maser……Page 210
Oscillations from accelerated electrons……Page 222
Celestial masers……Page 224
CHAPTER 11: THE PROPOSAL FOR AN ‘OPTICAL MASER’……Page 226
The Fabrikant proposal……Page 227
The optical bomb……Page 229
The Townes and Shawlow proposal……Page 230
CHAPTER 12: THE MISFORTUNE (OR FORTUNE?) OF GORDON GOULD……Page 237
The patents war……Page 241
Maiman begins construction of a ruby maser……Page 245
The ruby laser……Page 247
The second solid state laser……Page 253
The helium–neon laser……Page 256
The caesium laser……Page 264
The neodymium laser……Page 265
Organic dye lasers……Page 268
Laser diodes……Page 270
Does the laser exist in nature?……Page 278
CHAPTER 14: A SOLUTION IN SEARCH OF A PROBLEM OR MANY PROBLEMS WITH THE SAME SOLUTION? APPLICATIONS OF LASERS……Page 281
The laser and the military……Page 283
Optical fibres and laser telecommunication……Page 287
Compact discs……Page 291
Medical applications……Page 292
Mechanical work……Page 295
Measurement systems……Page 296
Optical readers in supermarkets……Page 297
The atmosphere……Page 298
Adaptive optics……Page 300
Spectroscopy……Page 304
The laser and the Moon……Page 305
Gravitational waves……Page 306
Nonlinear optics……Page 308
Quantum cryptography……Page 309
Atom trapping……Page 312
Bose–Einstein condensation……Page 313
BIBLIOGRAPHY……Page 315