{"id":90,"date":"2010-07-21T09:11:53","date_gmt":"2010-07-21T15:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lazerdesigns.com\/?p=90"},"modified":"2010-07-21T09:11:53","modified_gmt":"2010-07-21T15:11:53","slug":"50-years-of-laser-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/50-years-of-laser-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"50 Years of Laser Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>50 Years &#8230; for us mere mortals, that conjures images of slightly  graying hair, a house full of teenagers, widening middles and planning  for retirement. We often long for the good &#8216;ole days. But in the  ever-changing world of technology, 50 years is the equivalent of  FOREVER.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Theodore-Maiman.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium  wp-image-98\" title=\"Theodore Maiman\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Theodore-Maiman-217x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"134\" height=\"186\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Theodore-Maiman-217x300.jpg 217w, https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Theodore-Maiman.jpg 239w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 134px) 85vw, 134px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nThe laser had its beginning flash in 1960 at the hands of inventor Theodore Harold Maiman.\u00a0 After graduating from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.colorado.edu\/\">University of Colorado<\/a> and going on to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stanford.edu\/\">Stanford<\/a> for his graduate work, Maiman demonstrated the first laser via a pink ruby medium while working at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hrl.com\/\">Hughes Research Laboratories<\/a>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Charles-Townes.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-99\" title=\"Charles Townes\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Charles-Townes.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"195\" height=\"205\" \/><\/a>Following closely after was Nobel Prize Winner Charles Townes, a graduate who earned his masters degree at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.duke.edu\/\">Duke University<\/a>, and his doctorate at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.caltech.edu\/\">California Institute of Technology<\/a>. His work and research lead to his receipt of the Nobel Prize in Physics 1964 <em>&#8220;for fundamental work in the field of quantum  electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and  amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle.&#8221;<\/em><br \/>\nFifty years have passed. The Laser has &#8220;grown&#8221; from a machine requiring huge cooling systems used to prevent fires and overheating, to the small lasers in use today. It (the <strong>&#8220;L<\/strong>ight <strong>A<\/strong>mplification by the <strong>S<\/strong>timulated <strong>E<\/strong>mission of <strong>R<\/strong>adiation&#8221;) is used for everything from welding.  It is used in surgery, and by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/8301-501465_162-20011041-501465.html\">US Navy to shoot down drones<\/a>.<br \/>\nAnd here at Lazer Designs, we use state of the art, high speed laser machines &#8230; we use <strong>both<\/strong> co2 and an nd:YAG in our Colorado shop and our overseas factory for best results on a variety of materials &#8230; for  cutting and engraving. This is a no contact method of engraving, which  means we can etch onto surfaces that would otherwise be unengravable! We engrave on a variety of mediums. On <strong>anodized aluminum<\/strong>, laser engraving comes out frosty white. On <strong>wood<\/strong>,  it will turn a rich dark color. On <strong>marble<\/strong>, it comes out frosty white. On <strong>stainless  steel<\/strong>, the resulting engraving is black. Engraving onto <strong>plastic<\/strong> results in the underlying coating color. For more information, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/help\/laserengraved.html\">our website<\/a>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Green-Laser.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-100\" title=\"Green Laser\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Green-Laser.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"347\" height=\"346\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Green-Laser.jpg 347w, https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Green-Laser-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Green-Laser-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 347px) 85vw, 347px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nIn 1964, it was said commonly that &#8220;The laser is a solution in search of a problem.&#8221; It seems that in 50 years of work and patience, we have merely scratched the surface on the list of problems that can be solved by the lowly laser.<\/p>\n<address>Many thanks to the following websites for the information used in this article: <\/address>\n<address><a href=\"http:\/\/www.invent.org\/hall_of_fame\/96.html \">http:\/\/www.invent.org\/hall_of_fame\/96.html <\/a><\/address>\n<address><a href=\"http:\/\/nobelprize.org\/nobel_prizes\/physics\/laureates\/1964\/townes-bio.html\">http:\/\/nobelprize.org\/nobel_prizes\/physics\/laureates\/1964\/townes-bio.html<\/a><\/address>\n<address>and to RMI Laser, LLC for the <strong>50 Years of Laser Technology<\/strong> article in their most recent newsletter.<br \/>\n<\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>50 Years &#8230; for us mere mortals, that conjures images of slightly graying hair, a house full of teenagers, widening middles and planning for retirement. We often long for the good &#8216;ole days. But in the ever-changing world of technology, 50 years is the equivalent of FOREVER. The laser had its beginning flash in 1960 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/50-years-of-laser-technology\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;50 Years of Laser Technology&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24,11],"table_tags":[],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lazerdesigns","tag-lazer-engraving","tag-lazerdesigns-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"table_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazerdesigns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/table_tags?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}