50th Anniversary of the Laser Panel

The term "laser" was first introduced to the public in Gould's 1959 conference paper "The LASER, Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation"

50th anniversary of the laser panel
Friday February 20 4:00 - 5:00 pm
Physics and Astronomy Building PAB 1-425

 

Dr. Ralph Wuerker--Laser and holography pioneer. The LASER before and after 1960.

 

Ralph had this to say:
"I knew Maiman, I first got to know him when we were graduate students at Stanford. Then I worked for him after he left Hughes and founded Quantatron which later became Korad. Ted in my opinion really invented the laser by his choice and understanding of the spectroscopic properties and use of pulse excitation. I think the laser will stand as the most important invention of the twentieth century! The laser was born here in Southern California by the Pacific Ocean at the Hughes Research Laboratories, Malibu." See a video of Ralph Wuerker's presentation: download the video here or see the slides here.

 

Dr. Hagop Injeyan--Northrop Grumman. 100 kW Solid State Lasers for Missile Defense

 

High power defensive laser weapons have the potential to render destructive projectile explosives such as rockets, artillery shells and mortars obsolete. Recent shoot-downs of such threats at White Sands missile range using a chemical laser weapon prototype have confirmed this capability and suggest a paradigm shift in how warfare may be approached in the near future. Recent developments in electric solid-state lasers eliminate the logistic concerns of fielding a chemical laser and bring the promise of laser weapon system closer to reality. See a video of Hagop Injeyan's presentation: download the video here or get the powerpoint here. The video of lasers shooting down projectiles is here (very large 68 MB file).

 

Dr. Christoff Niemann--UCLA. NIF and the biggest laser in the world.

 

The world's largest laser, the National ignition facility, will shoot tremendous bursts of energy at targets the size of a pencil eraser, creating pressures never before seen in a laboratory setting. Experiments will begin next year to create a miniature star on earth, perhaps harnessing a new source of clean energy for the 21st century. See a video of Christoff Niemann's presentation: download the video here or get the powerpoint here.

 


Large KDP crystal grown in two months for NIF.