Innovation Monitor: “A laser is a solution seeking a problem”

Innovation Monitor: “A laser is a solution seeking a problem”

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Welcome to this week’s Innovation Monitor.

Lasers — or light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation — are ubiquitous and ingrained in our everyday lives, so much so that we often take them for granted. Lasers have actually only been around for about 60 years, and they power much of the information age’s technology: high-speed internet, cutting and welding tools, optical storage, telescopes, autonomous vehicles (for more on LiDARs, see our previous deep dive), eye surgery, weather prediction, bar code scanners…perhaps not quite but almost a light saber.

The laser has a fascinating history. It was initially thought to be either fundamentally or practically impossible, but a determined and visionary scientist pushed through and created the world’s first laser.

This week, we’ll dive into the invention of the laser, including it’s inventor and the race to become the first to make it a reality. And read on to find a quick overview on how lasers, lidar, and lasik for your next Covid-safe social gathering.

As always, stay safe & thank you for reading, and if you were forwarded this email, you can easily sign up here!

All best,
Erica Matsumoto The Inventor’s Son Born in 1927, Ted Maiman was heavily influenced by his father Abraham, an electronics engineer and inventor. By 12, he was fixing everything coming into an electrical appliance repair shop, and by 17 he got a job as a junior engineer at a radio company. He soon after becoming the youngest person in the US to hold a commercial radio-telephone license.

He honed his electronic knowledge at the Navy’s radar and communications training program, before getting his masters in electrical engineering and a PhD in physics.

The story of the laser, then, begins at the Hughes Atomic Physics Department, where Maiman began working in 1956. Here, a bit of backstory is required… about something called the MASER.

Before we get into the MASER, it’s worth remembering that bit of middle school science trivia: LASER is an acronym that stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Fire the MASERs Physicist Charles Townes joined Bell Labs in 1939 and was eventually tasked designing radar bombing systems for the war. From the Bell Labs blog, “Radar systems broadcast radio signals at specific wavelengths. When these signals strike solid objects, such as a battleship or an airplane, the signals that reflect back to the radar system can be correlated to identify the object and its position.”

The radars Townes was working on used wavelengths as small as 3 cm, but the military wanted them even shorter, for better precision and smaller components. This didn’t work out so well: at 1.25 cm, water vapor absorbed the radar signals, limiting the range.

After the war, Townes continued to work on shorter wavelengths for their application in spectroscopy, or the study of “absorption and emission of light and other radiation by matter.” Put simply, microwaves make clusters of atoms vibrate in ways that reveal certain properties.

By 1954, Townes had a working MASER — or Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation device — that could sustainably produce the required wavelength for better spectroscopy.

But Townes understood that even shorter wavelengths could produce more powerful research tools. In 1957, Townes began working on the new device, dubbed a LASER… but so had Maiman.

Before we get to the Laser Wars, it’s important to remember how a LASER works. This short YouTube video is a good explainer but in layperson’s terms, a laser manages to emit photons of light that are all at the same wavelength, or “coherent”. This is the secret to unlocking the hundreds of various use cases for lasers. Leveraging radio, sound, or light to aggregate external information are the core of everything from sonar to radar to LiDar and more.

Laser Wars It wasn’t just Maiman chasing the dream of making a functional laser. The TRG Corporation, Westinghouse Research Laboratories, and IBM were also looking to build a laser as well as patent the technology. In fact, Gordon Gould, a graduate student working at TRG, filed a patent for the concept of a laser in 1959. Soon after, Townes’ patent (on behalf of Bell) was accepted, kicking off a three-decade patent war that Gould only started winning by 1987.

But an actual working device was first built by Maiman in 1960. We’ll start by letting Maiman himself describe the moment:

The key differentiator for Maimon was the use of artificial rubies instead of various gases, as others had tried, to be the active medium. Another advantage was Maiman used pulses of light to excite atoms in the ruby versus the continuous waves of light that were being tested by his competitors. This created more of a flash than a steady beam, but it was so powerful, it was said to have shone with the “brilliance of a million suns”.

Our favorite line from Maiman about his invention was, “a laser is a solution seeking a problem”. While we have become more attuned to technologies being built, tested, and iterated upon to answer very specific user needs, it’s a reminder that some of the most earth-changing innovations come from teams of scientists competing to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem. The laser

…and on one final note, writing this newsletter made us more curious about the various acronyms related to electromagnetic technologies. A handy reference to throw out at your hopefully in-person social gatherings:

LASER — light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation
LASIK — laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (it’s not just a brand!)
MASER — microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation
LiDaR: light detection and ranging
RaDaR: radio detection and ranging
SoNaR: sound navigation and ranging
This Week in the Future

I’m incredibly excited to try out the new Snap Augmented Reality Spectacles that were announced this week. From what I’ve read, they appear to be a less powerful, but potentially more accessible and consumer-friendly gadget in the spirit of the Magic Leap (which is an incredible device to try out). We’re big believers in the power of AR to unleash creativity and new commercial use cases, but what I also find inspiring is Snap is continuing to innovate on its line of Spectacles. I vividly remember the first generation launching with a great deal of hype (remember the vending machines?), but the products have never received much traction or accolade. They’ve continued to push ahead in something they clearly believe in, and we hope to be covering the new AR glasses once they become available!

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