Nobel Prize in Physics 2009

The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2009 was awarded to C. Kao, W. Boyle und G. Smith, for ground-breaking achievements in two different areas of Photonics. [more]

History of photonics

50 years ago, in 1960, Theodore Maiman built the first laser at Hughes Research Laboratories (Malibu, CA). This was the first demonstration of a laser, emitting pulses of coherent radiation from a ruby crystal optically pumped from a flashlamp. At an international conference held recently in Vancouver, this very first laser was fired once again successfully [more].

Short after Maiman's work, Ali Javan, William Bennett und Donald Herriott developed and demonstrated the first helium-neon gas laser in cw-operation at Bell Labs, New Jersey.[more]