Skip to main content

Lasers & Electrooptics

Mariner 6 and 7 spacecraft
Society: ACS Main Category: Chemical Sub Category: Lasers & Electrooptics Era: 1960s DateCreated: 1969 University of California, Berkeley Berkeley State: CA Zip: Country: USA Website: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/mars-infrared-spectrometer.html Creator: Pimentel, George, Herr, Kenneth

As much as we know today about the planets of the solar system, it’s almost incomprehensible that a mere 50 years ago we knew almost nothing about them. Observations of even Mars and Venus, Earth’s closest planetary neighbors, through Earth-based telescopes had provided only the most rudimentary information on their physical characteristics and essentially no information on the chemical properties of the planets and their atmospheres.

YearAdded:
2017
Image Credit: Image Caption: Mariner 6 and 7 Era_date_from:
Society: SPIE Main Category: Optics Sub Category: Lasers & Electrooptics Era: 1950-1959 DateCreated: 1957 600-700 Mountain Avenue Murray Hill State: NJ Zip: 07974 Country: USA Website: http://spie.org/ Creator: Gould, Gordon , Bell Labs
As ideas developed, they abandoned infrared radiation to instead concentrate upon visible light. The concept originally was called an "optical maser". In 1958, Bell Labs filed a patent application for their proposed optical maser; and Schawlow and Townes submitted a manuscript of their theoretical calculations to the Physical Review, published that year in Volume 112, Issue No. 6. Simultaneously, at Columbia University, graduate student Gordon Gould was working on a doctoral thesis about the energy levels of excited thallium.
YearAdded:
Image Credit: Courtesy of the US Air Force Image Caption: A scientist tests a laser at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. Era_date_from: 1957
Subscribe to Lasers & Electrooptics
As ideas developed, they abandoned infrared radiation to instead concentrate upon visible light. The concept originally was called an "optical maser". In 1958, Bell Labs filed a patent application for their proposed optical maser; and Schawlow and Townes submitted a manuscript of their theoretical… Read More
Mariner 6 and 7 spacecraft

As much as we know today about the planets of the solar system, it’s almost incomprehensible that a mere 50 years ago we knew almost nothing about them. Observations of even Mars and Venus, Earth’s closest planetary neighbors, through Earth-based telescopes had provided only the most rudimentary…

Read More

We hope you enjoyed this essay.

Please support this 70-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Stay informed - subscribe to our newsletter.
The subscriber's email address.