Re: how the laser happened

On Fri, 21 Jun 2024 22:44:50 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
wrote:

On Fri, 21 Jun 2024 11:32:56 -0700, john larkin <jl@650pot.com> wrote:
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On Fri, 21 Jun 2024 17:56:36 +0100, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
wrote:
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On Fri, 21 Jun 2024 06:05:21 -0700, john larkin <jl@650pot.com> wrote:
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There was a thread somewhere above about photon wave/particle duality.
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This is worth reading:
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https://www.amazon.com/How-Laser-Happened-Adventures-Scientist/dp/0195153766
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Einstein, in one of his fits of genius, predicted in around 1916 that
under the right conditions, a photon could pass by an excited atom and
the atom would kick in another photon, or add to the wave amplitude,
depending on how you feel about these things. He called it stimulated
emission. He also declared that the laws of thermodynamics made this
effect impossible to use in practical situations.
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In 1951, Charles Townes invented a work-around trick and built the
maser, a gaseous microwave oscillator. His superiors thought he was
crazy to dispute Einstein and almost threw him out of grad school, but
it worked.
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In 1960, Theodore Maiman at HRL made the first ruby laser, and Bell
Labs soonafter made a HeNe.
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What's interesting is that any decent neon sign shop could have built
a HeNe laser in 1920.
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HRL sounds like a very cool place, up in the hills above Malibu.

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Wasn't that where Jane Mansfield used to go out bathing?
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Keep your mind on electronics, young man.

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My apologies, John. A rather obscure British cultural reference which
you wouldn't understand. Perhaps some British posters will recognize
it; we'll see.....
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The Getty Museum is in Malibu. Go there if you can. Hearst Castle,
too, up the road a bit.
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I was in New Orleans, an EE student at Tulane, when Jane died on US
highway 90 in New Orleans East. It was ugly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayne_Mansfield#Death