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A Quick Time Travel: The History of Laser Technology




Laser cutting in Toronto has changed today’s major industries like aerospace, automobile, consumer electronics, industrial equipment, metals, and metalworking, not to mention its impact on the retail sector. It relatively replaced conventional methods with user-friendly, precise, versatile, and efficient way for its intended application.



Today, let’s learn how laser technology evolved into a powerful and indispensable tool it is now.


1900: Planck introduces the link between radiation and energy


German physicist Max Karl Planck is the originator of the quantum theory and suggested that energy could be emitted only in quantized form. Years after, Plank’s postulate inspired Einstein to further his research.


1917: Einstein broaches the “stimulated emission” process


It is Albert Einstein, the most famous scientist of all time who laid the foundations of the laser cutting in Toronto. In his 1917 research paper on the quantum theory of radiation, he introduced the process called stimulated emission to create lasers. He hypothesized that electrons, when stimulated, could emit photons of the same wavelength when they return to their ground state.


1928: Ladenburg proves Einstein’s theory


German physicist Rudolph Ladenburg confirmed Einstein’s theory on stimulated emission. Later on, this process will become a basis for laser technology.


1939: Fabrikant predicts stimulated emission to amplify short waves


Russian scientist Valentin Fabrikant specified the requirements to achieve Einstein’s stimulated emission through light amplification.


1947: Lamb and Retherford demonstrate stimulated emission for the first time


American physicists Willis E. Lamb, Jr. and Robert C. Retherford found and demonstrated stimulated emission in hydrogen spectra.


1950: Kastler proposes optical pumping


French physicist and 1966 Nobel Prize winner Alfred Kastler proposed the method of optical pumping and confirmed it two years later with his first pupil Jean Brossel.


1951: Weber suggests using stimulated emission to make a microwave amplifier in Ottawa


American physicist Joseph Weber submitted a paper about creating a microwave amplifier using stimulated emissions to the June 1952 Institute of Radio Engineers Vacuum Tube Research Conference in Ottawa.



Metal Tronics offers competitive laser cutting in Toronto.


1952: Prokhorov and Basov describe the operation of microwave laser (maser)


During the All-Union Conference on Radio Spectroscopy in May 1952, both Soviet physicists Alexander Prokhorov and Nikolay Basov described how the maser works. Eventually, they produced the first continuously operating maser in the Soviet Union.


1953: Townes invented the first maser


American physicist Charles Hard Townes and graduate students James P. Gordon and Herbert J. Zeiger produced the first non-electronic microwave amplifier, a device that also works with similar principles of laser but not through infrared or visible radiation.


1955: Prokhorov and Basov suggests optical pumping to obtain population inversion


Alexander Prokhorov and Nikolay Basov suggested optical pumping of a multi-level system as a method for obtaining the population inversion.


1957: Townes and Schawlow focuses on the optical maser


At Bell Labs, Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow studied the infrared laser but eventually abandoned it and concentrated upon the visible light.


1958: Bell Labs files a patent application for the optical maser


Schawlow and Townes requested an invention patent for the optical maser and submitted their theoretical calculations to the Physical Review, published in the same year in Volume 112, Issue No. 6.


1960: Maiman operates first working laser and the US Patent Office grants the patent to Bell Labs


The American engineer and physicist, Theodore H. Maiman operated the first working laser (a pulsed ruby laser) at Hughes Research Laboratories, Malibu, California on May 16, 1960. A few days later, on May 22, 1960, the US approved the patent application of Townes and Schawlow, under Bell Labs, for the optical maser (laser).


1963: Snitzer invents fiber laser


A year before the CO2 laser appeared, American physicist Elias Snitzer built the first fiber laser. Although it took two decades to finally develop these fiber lasers for commercial production in the late 1980s.


1964: Patel Develops First CO2 Laser


Indian electrical engineer Kumar Patel of Bell Labs of USA developed the first CO2 laser. In the same year, J. E. Geusic inside the same laboratory built the first crystal laser. Compared to the ruby laser, CO2 lasers cost lower and are more efficient.

High-quality laser cutting services in Toronto are possible with the Mitsubishi CO2 laser cutter.


Since then, the laser technology continues to develop as it benefits the modern industry. Without a doubt, today’s laser technology is way much different than decades ago. Let us not forget how it evolved through time with the help of many brilliant minds.



Laser cutting services in Toronto are available in Metal Tronics. Call us now! Let’s start working on your project.

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