The Laser

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of Radiation. What does
that mean? Basically a laser is a device which produces and then amplifies light
waves and concentrates them into an intense penetrating beam.

The principles of the laser (and it's cousin the maser) were established
long before these devices were successfully developed. In 1916 Albert Einstein
proposed stimulated emission, and other fundamental ideas were discussed by V.A.
Fabrikant in 1940. These ideas, followed by decades of intensive development of
microwave technology set the stage for the first maser (a laser made up of
micro-waves), and this in turn helped to produce more advances in this area of
science. These efforts cumulated in July 1960 when Theodore H. Maiman announced
the generation of a pulse of coherent red light by means of a ruby crystal-- the
first laser.

Laser light is produced by pumping some form of energy, such as light, from
a flash tube (see below) into a LASING material, also known as a medium. Media
can be liquids, ...

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