Timeline of United States inventions (1946–91) of the United States Geological Survey. 1960 Gas laser A gas laser is a laser in which an electric current is discharged through a gas to produce light. The first gas laser, the Helium-neon, was invented by William R. Bennett, Don Herriott, and Ali Javan in 1960. The first continuous visible gas laser, operating at 632.8 nm in the red, was invented by A. D. White and J. D. Rigden in 1962. 1961 Spreadsheet (electronic) 1961 Wearable computer 1961 Frozen carbonated beverage 1961 Biofeedback 1962 Communications satellite 1962 Chimney starter 1962 Light-emitting diode A light-emitting-diode (LED) is a semiconductor diode
Superluminescent diode Superluminescent diode A superluminescent diode (SLED or SLD) is an edge-emitting semiconductor light source based on superluminescence. It combines the high power and brightness of laser diodes with the low coherence of conventional light-emitting diodes. Its emission band is 5–100 nm wide. In 1986 Dr. Gerard A. Alphonse at RCA Laboratories (now SRI International), invented the superluminescent diode. This light source was developed as a key component in the next generations of fibre optic gyroscopes, low coherence tomography for medical imaging, and external cavity tunable lasers with applications to fiber-optic communications. In 1989 the technology was transferred to GE-RCA in