Foreword

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half a century passed until the practical realisation of the idea. The �rst
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ampli�cation of stimulated emission of radiation) was invented.
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ampli�cation and oscillation at microwave frequencies, had independently
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in 1954. The �rst Nobel Prize in the �eld went to Townes, Prokhorov and
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maser pumping scheme. The demonstration of microwave ampli�cation
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and development efforts veri�ed the potential of this principle towards the
realisation of highly monochromatic oscillators and ampli�ers with very low
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The �rst proposal to extend the principle from microwaves to optical
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and extrapolated knowledge from the �eld of microwave masers and optical
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ef�ciency, leaving an enormous number of remaining modes unampli�ed.
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action was �rst observed by Maiman in 1960. It was obtained from ruby
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by a �ashlamp similar to those used in photography, giving light pulses in
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exhibited at the ‘50 ans du Laser’ Conference in Paris in 2010 at the Palace
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The �rst laser was one where the active material was a solid (single crystal).
The signi�cance of this type of solution has been increasing in recent years

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xxiv Foreword

The original laser used by Maiman to observe laser action in 1960

(source A. Czitrovsky).

in a growing number of scienti�c, technological and medical applications.

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students of the �eld.
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materials, in other solids including optical �bres, in gases, in semiconductors,
and in liquids. Other Nobel Prizes followed the �rst one, like that in the
semiconductor �eld of Z. Alferov and numerous further ones in applications.
In time, all the speci�c laser parameters went into the direction of extremes,
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Not only was the �rst laser made of solid-state materials, but many of the
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 Foreword xxv

inversely, the new developments have led to new discoveries in these �elds
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classi�cation of laser materials (Nd: YAG, Nd: YVO /) (U JODVV HWF
and a review of the different type of lasers (microchip lasers, �bre lasers,
Raman-lasers, cryogenic lasers, YLF-lasers, LIBS-lasers, etc.). The �nal
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