Laser laser devices. The question of just how to assign credit for inventing the laser remains unresolved by historians. On May 16, 1960, Theodore H. Maiman operated the first functioning laser at Hughes Research Laboratories, Malibu, California, ahead of several research teams, including those of Townes, at Columbia University, Arthur Schawlow, at Bell Labs, and Gould, at the TRG (Technical Research Group) company. Maiman's functional laser used a solid-state flashlamp-pumped synthetic ruby crystal to produce red laser light, at 694 nanometers wavelength; however, the device only was capable of pulsed operation, because of its three-level pumping design scheme. Later that year,
Transistor laser that would normally be sent out through the electrical output. These electrons then undergo a process of radiative recombination, during which electrons and positively charged "holes" recombine in the base. While this process occurs in all transistors, it has an exceedingly short lifespan of only 30 picoseconds in the transistor laser, allowing for faster operation. Photons are then released through stimulated emission. Light bounces back and forth between reflective walls inside the 2.2 micrometer wide emitter that acts as a resonant cavity. Finally, light is emitted as a laser. The device was initially constructed out of layers of indium gallium