Lasers 2

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The working principles of lasers were outlined by the American physicists Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes in their 1958 patent application. The patent was granted but was later challenged by the American physicist and engineer Gordon Gould. In 1960 the American physicist Theodore Maiman observed the first laser action in solid ruby.
HOW A LASER WORKS
A laser is made up of several basic components. One is called active medium, which consists of atoms of a gas, molecules in a liquid, ions in a crystal, or any of several other possibilities. Another component consists of some method of introducing energy into the active medium, such as a flash lamp. The third basic component is a pair of mirrors placed on either
side of the active meduim, one of which transmits part of the radiation that strikes it. Atoms initially in a lower state are raised to the upper state by energy from a flash lamp or some other pumping source. Some of these atoms emit light in random ...

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