When were lasers invented? The first working laser was built on 16 May 1960 by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories. To answer when were lasers invented precisely: it was 16 May 1960, at a lab in Malibu, California. It used a synthetic ruby rod wrapped in a photographer's flash lamp and produced a deep red pulse at 694 nanometres. But the story of the laser starts decades earlier, with Einstein in 1917 and the race among several scientists to turn theory into hardware.
Here is what we cover: Einstein's stimulated emission theory, the maser that came before the laser, the race to build the first laser, Maiman's breakthrough, what happened next, and a full timeline of laser history.
Einstein's 1917 Theory: The Seed of the Laser
The laser begins with Albert Einstein. In 1917, he described a process called stimulated emission — the idea that a passing photon could trigger an excited atom to release an identical photon, rather than the atom emitting one spontaneously. This was the first theoretical step toward answering when were lasers invented. It was a purely theoretical prediction with no known application.
Picture a room full of people holding tennis balls, each standing on a step. If someone throws a ball at exactly the right moment, it can knock a ball loose from each person, and suddenly you have many balls flying in the same direction. That is stimulated emission: one photon triggers a cascade of identical photons.
The idea lay mostly dormant for decades. In 1928, German physicist Rudolf Ladenburg observed stimulated emission in a lab experiment, but it seemed like a laboratory curiosity. No one saw a practical use for it.
The Maser: Light's Microwave Cousin
In 1951, Charles Townes at Columbia University had a different idea. If stimulated emission worked for light, why not try it with microwaves? His work would later help answer when were lasers invented, because it proved that stimulated emission could produce practical, usable power. At the end of 1953, he demonstrated the first maser — Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. It used excited ammonia molecules in a resonant cavity to produce a pure microwave frequency.
Independently, Soviet physicists Alexander Prokhorov and Nikolay Basov at the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow described the theory of maser operation. The three shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work.
Masers worked, but they had limited applications — mostly as low-noise amplifiers and atomic clocks. The real prize was visible light.
The Race to Build the First Laser
By 1957, several groups were racing to build an "optical maser" — what we now call a laser.
Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow at Bell Labs worked on the theory. In 1958, they published a landmark paper in Physical Review describing how an optical maser could work, using an open resonator with two parallel mirrors.
Gordon Gould, a Columbia University graduate student, had a parallel insight. In November 1957, he wrote the term LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) in his lab notebook. He filed a patent application in 1959. Gould envisioned practical uses including telecommunications, cutting, and nuclear fusion — remarkably prescient for the time.
The patent battle between Gould and Bell Labs would last 28 years. Gould eventually won several key patents in the 1970s and 1980s, receiving royalties for laser amplifiers.
Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories took a more practical approach. While others debated theory and patents, he focused on finding a material that would actually work. He was the one who definitively answered when were lasers invented by building the first working device.
When Were Lasers Invented? Maiman's 1960 Breakthrough
This is the date that answers the question: when were lasers invented? On 16 May 1960, Theodore Maiman fired up the first working laser. To understand when were lasers invented, you have to understand what Maiman did differently from the others. He stopped theorising and built a working device.
His design was simple. He took a small synthetic ruby rod — 4 cm long and 0.5 cm in diameter — with silver coatings on both ends to act as mirrors. He wrapped it in a photographer's spiral flash lamp. When he fired the flash, the ruby emitted a pulse of deep red light at 694 nm.
The pulse lasted only a few hundred microseconds, but it was a hundred thousand times brighter than the Sun for that instant. It was the first time light had been amplified by stimulated emission and contained between mirrors to build into a coherent beam.
Maiman announced the result on 7 July 1960 at a press conference. The scientific community was initially sceptical — the ruby laser was a three-level system, which theorists had said would not work. Maiman proved them wrong.
The first laser was called "a solution looking for a problem." In 1960, no one knew what to do with it. But that changed quickly.
What Happened Next: The Laser Revolution
The year after Maiman's breakthrough saw an explosion of laser development. Once someone had invented the laser, others rapidly improved on the design:
- 1960 — Peter Sorokin and Mirek Stevenson at IBM built the second laser (uranium-doped calcium fluoride), and also demonstrated the first four-level laser.
- 1961 — The first helium-neon (HeNe) laser was built, producing continuous red light rather than pulses. This became the classic laboratory laser.
- 1962 — The first semiconductor (diode) laser was demonstrated. Compact and efficient, it would later power everything from CD players to fibre-optic communications.
- 1963 — Herbert Kroemer and others developed the double-heterostructure laser diode, making continuous room-temperature operation possible. The first medical laser procedure — retinal photocoagulation — was performed.
- 1964 — CO2 lasers (powerful, continuous, industrial) and Nd:YAG lasers (versatile solid-state) were developed. Townes, Basov, and Prokhorov won the Nobel Prize.
- 1970 — Corning produced the first low-loss optical fibre, paving the way for laser-powered telecommunications.
- 1974 — The first laser barcode scanner appeared in a supermarket.
- 1982 — The first commercial CD player used a laser to read digital data.
- 1991 — LASIK eye surgery using excimer lasers was developed.
- 1990s–2000s — Blu-ray, laser printers, lidar, and ultrafast lasers for research.
Full Laser Invention Timeline
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1917 | Einstein describes stimulated emission |
| 1928 | Ladenburg observes stimulated emission in the lab |
| 1953 | First maser built by Charles Townes |
| 1957 | Gould coins the term LASER |
| 1958 | Townes and Schawlow publish optical maser theory |
| 16 May 1960 | Maiman fires the first working laser |
| 1961 | First HeNe (gas) laser operates continuously |
| 1962 | First semiconductor diode laser |
| 1963 | First medical laser procedure |
| 1964 | CO2 and Nd:YAG lasers developed; Nobel Prize awarded |
| 1970 | First low-loss optical fibre |
| 1974 | First supermarket barcode scanner |
| 1982 | First commercial CD player |
| 1991 | LASIK eye surgery developed |
Today, lasers are everywhere — in your pocket (phone sensors, fibre internet), in hospitals (surgery, vision correction), in factories (cutting, welding), and in research labs (ultrafast imaging, quantum experiments). The "solution looking for a problem" found more problems than anyone imagined, and it all traces back to that firstlaser moment in May 1960.
External resources
- Wikipedia: Laser — comprehensive article covering laser history, principles, and applications
- Britannica: Laser History — authoritative history section from the Encyclopaedia Britannica
- APS Physics: This Month in Physics History — First Laser — detailed account of Maiman's first laser from the American Physical Society
Read our guide on how laser light works for the physics behind the invention, and what LASER stands for for the origin of the acronym.
Recommended Products
- Ruby Crystal Specimen on Amazon — see the material that made the first laser possible
- Educational Laser Kit on Amazon — hands-on laser experiments for understanding laser principles
- History of Science Books on Amazon — further reading on laser invention and development
Frequently Asked Questions
When were lasers invented?
The first working laser was built on 16 May 1960 by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California. It used a synthetic ruby crystal as the gain medium and produced pulsed red light at 694 nm.
Who invented the first laser?
Theodore Maiman built the first working laser in 1960. However, the theoretical foundation was laid by Albert Einstein in 1917, and key contributions came from Charles Townes (maser, 1953), Arthur Schawlow (optical maser theory, 1958), and Gordon Gould (who coined the term LASER and patented the optical amplifier).
When was the laser first used in medicine?
The first medical use of a laser was in 1963, when ophthalmologists used a ruby laser to treat retinal diseases by photocoagulation — destroying small blood vessels in the retina. CO2 lasers followed in 1973 for surgery and skin treatments.
What did scientists use before lasers?
Before lasers, scientists used masers — devices that amplified microwave radiation using the same principle of stimulated emission. Charles Townes built the first maser in 1953 using excited ammonia molecules. Masers are still used today as atomic clocks and low-noise amplifiers.
When was the LASER acronym first used?
Gordon Gould coined the term LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) in 1957, writing it in his lab notebook. He first published it at a conference in 1959, a year before Maiman built the first working laser.
Why was the laser called a solution looking for a problem?
When the laser was first demonstrated, no one knew exactly what to do with it. Early lasers were inefficient, expensive, and pulsed only in short bursts. It took years to find practical applications — barcode scanners, CD players, eye surgery, and fibre-optic communications all came later.
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Physics Optics writes in-depth guides on the physics of light and optics — from reflection, refraction, and lenses to diffraction, lasers, and fiber optics, explained from first principles.
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