The first laser: on show at MPQ

 

Exhibition opening

on

Monday, December 12,2016

at 3PM

   

Location: 

Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics,
Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, 85748 Garching

  

open for public: daily from 9AM to 5PM

In the year 1960, a new era of technology began when Theodore Maiman (photo) presented the first functioning laser to the world: a small device comprising a flash lamp, a ruby ​​and a metal case. Maiman’s original laser has survived the intervening decades, and can now be viewed as part of a small exhibition in the foyer of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) in Garching. Alongside the laser, Maiman’s original laboratory logbook containing his sketches of the groundbreaking device is also presented for viewing.

In 1960, Theodore Maiman succeeded in concentrating light in a hitherto unprecedented manner. He had made history by producing so-called coherent light with a special light source later called the ‘laser’.