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,
Er:YAG laser increase surface area for improved bonding adhesion. Er:YAG laser An Er:YAG laser (erbium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet laser, erbium YAG laser) is a solid-state laser whose active laser medium is erbium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet (Er:YAlO). Er:YAG lasers typically emit light with a wavelength of 2940 nm, which is infrared light. Unlike s, the output of an Er:YAG laser is strongly absorbed by water. This fact limits the use of this laser in surgery, and in many other laser applications where water is present. Because of this limitation, Er:YAG lasers are far less common than their relatives such as Nd:YAG and lasers.