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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 ...
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.
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.
Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov [1] (born Alexander Michael Prochoroff, Russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Про́хоров; 11 July 1916 – 8 January 2002) was a Russian physicist and researcher on lasers and masers in the former Soviet Union for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964 with Charles Hard Townes and Nikolay Basov.
Laser science or laser physics is a branch of optics that describes the theory and practice of lasers. [ 1 ] Laser science is principally concerned with quantum electronics , laser construction , optical cavity design, the physics of producing a population inversion in laser media , and the temporal evolution of the light field in the laser.
Laser, maser and optical resonators are used, reducing the possibility of any anisotropy of the speed of light to the 10 −17 level. In addition to terrestrial tests, Lunar Laser Ranging Experiments have also been conducted as a variation of the Kennedy-Thorndike-experiment.
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.