Ep. 08 : Gripping History of Laser Invention

I tell the story behind laser invention. It is a story of human imagination, tenacity, invention of a device, intense competition, blame and humor. I discuss how cold-war era USA created an environment to innovate and compete, all thanks to Sputnik... References : Hecht, Jeff. Beam: The Race to Make the Laser. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/beam-9780199738717?cc=in&lang=en&.———. Hecht, Jeff. “Short History of Laser Development.” Optical Engineering 49, no. 9 (September 2010): 091002. https://doi.org/10.1117/1.3483597. Maiman, Theodore H. The Laser Inventor: Memoirs of Theodore H. Maiman. Springer, 2017. ⁠https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/The_Laser_Inventor/bjxEDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover⁠. Townes, Charles H. How the Laser Happened: Adventures of a Scientist. Oxford University Press, 2002. https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/How_the_Laser_Happened/hhQzVno6dyIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover. Boyd, Robert. “Charles H. Townes (1915–2015).” Nature 519, no. 7543 (March 2015): 292–292. https://doi.org/10.1038/519292a. Garmire, Elsa. “Memories of Charles Townes.” Nature Photonics 9, no. 6 (June 2015): 347–50. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.91. Maiman, T. H. “Stimulated Optical Radiation in Ruby.” Nature 187, no. 4736 (August 1960): 493–94. https://doi.org/10.1038/187493a0.