Laser science awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018 for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics. The first working laser (a pulsed ruby laser) was demonstrated on May 16, 1960, by Theodore Maiman at the Hughes Research Laboratories. Laser science Laser science or laser physics is a branch of optics that describes the theory and practice of lasers. Laser science is principally concerned with quantum electronics, laser construction, optical cavity design, the physics of producing a population inversion in laser media, and the temporal evolution of the light field in the laser. It is also concerned with the physics
Chemical laser C. Pimentel in 1965. First, chlorine (Cl) was vigorously photo-disassociated into atoms, which then reacted with hydrogen, yielding hydrogen chloride (HCl) in an excited state suitable for a laser. Then hydrogen fluoride (HF) and deuterium fluoride (DF) were demonstrated. Pimentel went on to explore a DF-CO transfer laser. Although this work did not produce a purely chemical continuous wave laser, it paved the way by showing the viability of the chemical reaction as a pumping mechanism for a chemical laser. The continuous wave (CW) chemical HF laser was first demonstrated in 1969, and patented in 1972, by D. J. Spencer,