Laser Laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The first laser was built in 1960 by Theodore H. Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories, based on theoretical work by Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow. A laser differs from other sources of light in that it emits light "coherently". Spatial coherence allows a laser to be focused to a tight spot, enabling applications such as laser cutting and lithography. Spatial
Polariton laser Review Letters" in May 2013). The investigations performed by the team in Würzburg, having started with the idea of engineering an electrical device in 2007, led to the desired effect after a few years in cooperation with their international partners from the U.S., Japan, Russia, Singapore, Iceland and Germany. Finally, their studies were complemented by a crucial experiment in a magnetic field: an unambiguous verification of the emission-mode's matter component in the polaritonic laser regime was given, yielding a first-time experimental demonstration of an electrically pumped polariton laser by C. Schneider, A. Rahimi-Iman and co-authors in the team of S.