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1917 - Albert Einstein proposes a theory that a photon or light article induces an atom to emit an identical photon.
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1960 - The first laser is made by Theodore Maiman in California
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1962 - Semi-conducting diode laser is invented (produces coherent radiation)
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1974 - First ever supermarket bar code scanner
It detects the reflected light from the illumination system and generates an analog signal that is sent to the decoder. The decoder interprets that signal, validates the barcode using the check digit, and coverts it into text.
http://www.independent.co.uk/property/house-and-home/laser-a-timeline-1973907.html -
1975 - IBM introduces the first commercial laser printer Laser beams scan back and forth across a drum inside the printer, building up a pattern of static electricity. The static electricity attracts onto the page a kind of powdered ink called toner.
Laser beams scan back and forth across a drum inside the printer, building up a pattern of static electricity. The static electricity attracts onto the page a kind of powdered ink called toner.
http://www.independent.co.uk/property/house-and-home/laser-a-timeline-1973907.html -
1978 - Phillips makes first laser disc player
Below the CD optical disc is a laser mounted to a moving sled. The sled can move back and forth along the CD as it spins. In close proximity to the laser beam is a photo receptor that converts the reflected laser light into an electric current. http://www.independent.co.uk/property/house-and-home/laser-a-timeline-1973907.html -
1982 - First compact disc player
Inside your CD player, there is a miniature laser beam (semiconductor diode laser) and a small photoelectric cell (an electronic light detector) The laser flashes up onto the shiny under side of the CD, bouncing off the patterns on the disc. http://www.independent.co.uk/property/house-and-home/laser-a-timeline-1973907.html -
1988 - North America and Europe are linked together through fibre optic cable which uses lasers to transport data.
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2008 - French neurosurgeons use fibre optic lasers and keyhole surgery to destroy brain cancer
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2010 - Quest for nuclear fusion clears key hurdle with the use of 192 laser beams to compress tiny balls of fuel made of deuterium and tritium.
