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In 1954
Charles Hard Townes built the first maser with H. J. Zeiger and
James P. Gordon at Columbia University. The maser is microwave (low
frequency radiation) amplification by stimulated emission of
radiation. Townes moved on to hypothesize on creating very
concentrated beams of light called lasers, light amplification by
stimulated emission of radiation. He wrote an article for
Physical Review entitled “Infrared and Optical Masers” with
Arthur Schawlow. This paper was published in 1958 and became the
first theoretical description of a laser. Townes’ work launched a
competition to build the first working laser. Theodore Maiman
succeeded in 1960.
Charles Hard
Townes worked as vice president and director of research at the
Institute for Defense Analysis in Washington, D.C. for several
years. He then taught as a renowned professor at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and the University of California at
Berkeley. In 1964 Charles Hard Townes won the Nobel Prize in
physics for his work leading to the development of the maser.
Townes continues to research astrophysics even after his retirement
from teaching in 1986. |
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