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The laser works by the same principle as the maser, but produces higher-frequency coherent radiation at visible wavelengths. The maser was the precursor to the laser, inspiring theoretical work by Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow that led to the invention of the laser in 1960 by Theodore Maiman. When the coherent optical oscillator was first ...
The terms laser and maser are also used for naturally occurring coherent emissions, as in astrophysical maser and atom laser. [18] [19] A laser that produces light by itself is technically an optical oscillator rather than an optical amplifier as suggested by the acronym. [20]
Charles Hard Townes (July 28, 1915 – January 27, 2015) was an American physicist. [4] [5] Townes worked on the theory and application of the maser, for which he obtained the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics associated with both maser and laser devices.
In 1956, Gould proposed using optical pumping to excite a maser, and discussed this idea with the maser's inventor Charles Townes, who was also a professor at Columbia and later won the 1964 Nobel prize for his work on the maser and the laser. [9] Townes gave Gould advice on how to obtain a patent on his innovation, and agreed to act as a witness.
Maiman had begun conceptualizing a solid-state laser design even before he undertook the maser project at Hughes. [ 5 ] : 45 [ 14 ] : 59 Moving the microwave frequency of masers up the electromagnetic spectrum 50,000-fold to the frequency of light would require finding a feasible lasing medium and excitation source and designing the system.
Laser science predates the invention of the laser itself. Albert Einstein created the foundations for the laser and maser in 1917, via a paper in which he re-derived Max Planck’s law of radiation using a formalism based on probability coefficients (Einstein coefficients) for the absorption, spontaneous emission, and stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. [2]
This concept can be more conceivable by imagining it in analogy to laser theory. Theodore Maiman operated the first functioning LASER on May 16, 1960 at Hughes Research Laboratories, Malibu, California, [6] A device that operates according to the central idea of the "sound amplification by stimulated emission of radiation" theory is the thermoacoustic laser.
The brightness temperature of a maser is the temperature a black body would have if producing the same emission brightness at the wavelength of the maser. That is, if an object had a temperature of about 10 9 K it would produce as much 1665-MHz radiation as a strong interstellar OH maser.