CNRS | 2010 | 9'21" | French version

Theodore Maiman made the first laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) operate on 16 May 1960 at the Hughes Research Laboratory in California, by shining a high-power flash lamp on a ruby rod with silver-coated surfaces. He promptly submitted a short report of the work to the journal Physical Review Letters, but the editors turned it down.

A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. Discover more about this technology opening this video...

Click here to come back to the video section