ABSTRACT
The laser, at least in concept, traces back to Albert Einstein in the early 1900s with his paper on stimulated emission. It took until 1960 for what we now call a laser to be demonstrated. A paper published by Townes and Schawlow in 1958 laid out the principles for the laser (light amplification of stimulated emission of radiation). In May 1960, American physicist Theodore Maiman built the first laser to successfully produce a pulse of coherent light, using synthetic ruby as the laser medium. The first continuously operating laser was achieved a few months later.
