Theodore Maiman
Maiman, Theodore (1927-), an American physicist, designed and operated the first laser in 1960. A laser is a device that produces a very narrow, powerful beam of light.
Although there seemed to be no particular use for the laser when Maiman first created it, lasers soon became one of the most useful inventions of the 1900's. Lasers are used in communications, industry, medicine, and scientific research.
Theodore Harold Maiman was born July 11, 1927, in Los Angeles. He studied at the University of Colorado and at Stanford University, California. After receiving his Ph.D. degree from Stanford in 1955, Maiman took a job with the Hughes Research Laboratories in Miami, Florida, where he worked until 1961. At Hughes, Maiman became interested in a device developed and built by American physicist Charles Hard Townes. In 1951, Townes explained the basic principles that led to the development of the maser (microwave [or molecular] amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). A maser is a device that uses the energy of molecules or atoms to amplify radio waves. Townes helped build the first maser in 1953. In 1958, Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow proposed the laser, a device for amplifying light waves, but they did not build one.
Maiman set out to develop an optical maser, or laser, that would produce light rather than microwaves. Laser stands for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. He operated the first successful laser in 1960. It produced pulses of laser light, but Bell Telephone Laboratories created a continuous-beam laser in 1961.
In 1962, Maiman established the Korad Corporation for research, development, and manufacture of lasers. In 1968, he founded Maiman Associates, a laser and optics consultant organization. He cofounded the Laser Video Corporation in 1972. In 1975, he joined the TRW Electronics Company, in Los Angeles.