Edit Proposal: Milestone-Proposal:IEEE Milestone for the Demonstration of the First Working Laser in Malibu, CA

Thank you for proposing a technical achievement for possible recognition as an IEEE Milestone in Electrical Engineering and Computing. Your efforts help preserve the heritage of technology. Detailed information on the Milestone application process may be found at: Milestones:Milestone Guidelines and How to Propose a Milestone.

Is the achievement you are proposing more than 25 years old? None Yes No

Is the achievement you are proposing within IEEE’s fields of interest? (e.g. “the theory and practice of electrical, electronics, communications and computer engineering, as well as computer science, the allied branches of engineering and the related arts and sciences” – from the IEEE Constitution) None Yes No

Did the achievement provide a meaningful benefit for humanity? None Yes No

Was it of at least regional importance? None Yes No

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to pay for the milestone plaque(s)? None Yes No

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to arrange the dedication ceremony? None Yes No

Has the IEEE Section in which the milestone is located agreed to take responsibility for the plaque after it is dedicated? None Yes No

Has the owner of the site given permission to place an IEEE plaque? Yes No

Contact us at ieee-history@ieee.org if you are unable to answer "yes" to all of the above and would still like to proceed.

Year or range of years in which the achievement occurred:

Title of the proposed milestone. (Include date or date range in title. Example: “Alternating Current Electrification, 1886”)

Please provide a plaque citation in English summarizing the achievement and its significance. Text absolutely limited by plaque dimensions to 70 words; 60 is preferable for aesthetic reasons. NOTE: The IEEE History Committee shall have final determination on the wording of the citation. For more information and suggestions about writing milestone citations, please visit Milestones:Helpful Hints on Citations, Plaque Locations.

In what IEEE section(s) will the milestone plaque(s) reside?

Please specify the IEEE Organizational Unit(s) which have agreed to sponsor the Milestone, and supply name and contact information for the senior officer from those OU(s). Sponsorship has three aspects: 1) Payment for the cost of the plaque(s), 2) Arranging the dedication ceremony, and 3) agreeing to monitor the plaque and to let IEEE History Center staff know in case the plaque needs to be moved, is no longer secure, etc. Number 3 must be done by the IEEE Section(s) in which the plaque(s) is located, but aspects 1 and 2 can be done by any IEEE Organizational Unit, and they need not be the same one.

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) paying for milestone plaque(s)

Unit: Senior Officer Name: E-mail:

Unit: Senior Officer Name: E-mail:

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) arranging the dedication ceremony

Unit: Senior Officer Name: E-mail:

Unit: Senior Officer Name: E-mail:

IEEE section(s) monitoring the plaque

IEEE Section: IEEE Section Chair name: IEEE Section Chair e-mail:

IEEE Section: IEEE Section Chair name: IEEE Section Chair e-mail:

Milestone proposer(s)

Proposer name: Proposer email:

Proposer name: Proposer email:

Street address(es) and GPS coordinates of the intended milestone plaque site(s).

Proposed site would be the building where the invention occurred at the Hughes Research Lab in Malibu California.

Intended site(s) of the milestone plaque(s). The intended site(s) must have a direct connection with the achievement (e.g. where developed, invented, tested, demonstrated, installed, or operated, etc.). A museum where a device or example of the technology is displayed, or the university where the inventor studied, are not—in themselves— sufficient connection for a milestone plaque. For more information on plaque locations and suggestions on how to select them, please visit Milestones:Helpful Hints on Citations, Plaque Locations.

Proposed site would be the building where the invention occurred at the Hughes Research Lab in Malibu, California.

Are the original buildings extant?

Yes

Please provide the details of the mounting, i.e. on the outside of the building, in the ground floor entrance hall, on a plinth on the grounds, etc.

How is the intended plaque site protected/secured, and in what ways is it accessible to the public? If visitors to the plaque site will need to go through security, or make an appointment, please give details as well as the contact information visitors will need in order to arrange to visit the plaque.

The site is private corporate property. Off hours, a gate surrounds the facility. During hours, the gate is open and a reception area can welcome visitors.

Who is the present owner of the site(s)?

The building is currently owned jointly by Boeing and Raytheon, and General Motors who bought this division of Hughes in 1985.

Please attach a letter in English, or with English translation, from the site owner(s) giving permission to place IEEE milestone plaque on the property.

Upload file

Please attach a letter or email from the appropriate Section Chair supporting the Milestone application.

Upload file

In the space below, please describe in detail:

• the historic significance of the achievement,
• its importance to the evolution of electrical and computer engineering and science,
• its importance to regional/national/international development,
• its benefits to humanity,
• the ways the achievement was a significant advance rather than an incremental

improvement of existing technology.

The material submitted here will constitute the main descriptive article on the GHN website for readers to learn about the milestone. Space is unlimited, and detail is encouraged. Most milestones require 1000 to 1500 words of support, however there is no word limit. The article should be readable by a wide audience that includes practicing engineers, scholars of history, and the general public. Some examples of the text of good milestone articles are Milestones:First Radio Astronomical Observations Using Very Long Baseline Interferometry and Milestones:International Standardization of G3 Facsimile (Do not worry about the formatting of the page, IEEE History Center Staff will do that afterwards.)

What is the historical significance of the work (its technological, scientific, or social importance)?

Theodore Maiman developed the first working laser at Hughes Research Lab in 1960, and his paper describing the operation of the first laser was published in Nature three months later. Since then, more than 55,000 patents involving the laser have been granted in the United States. Today, lasers are used in countless areas of modern life. Some examples include telecommunications, medical diagnostics and surgery, manufacturing, environmental sensing, basic scientific research, space exploration and entertainment. In the past, the IEEE has recognized the significance of the laser as being one of the key technical achievements of the 20th century.

What obstacles (technical, political, geographic) needed to be overcome?

After the Schawlow-Townes Physical Review paper was published in 1958, a furious competition ensued to build the first working laser involving institutions such as Bell Labs, Hughes Research Labs, RCA Labs, Lincoln Labs, IBM, Westinghouse, and Siemens. Most of these efforts attempted to build a continuous wave laser using electrically pumped four-level gaseous media such as ammonia. These have very low gains making it difficult to reach threshold. Higher gains could in principle be achieved in solid state media such as ruby. However, most researchers had dismissed ruby from consideration because it was a three-level system making it unlikely to achieve continuous oscillation. Maiman correctly realized that high gain pulsed oscillation could straightforwardly be achieved in ruby by optically pumping with commercial flash lamps and in May 1960 demonstrated the first laser. This laser was so easy to build that within weeks several other groups duplicated the achievement.

What features set this work apart from similar achievements?

While there were no previous lasers before Maiman’s achievement, a predecessor of the laser, called the MASER, for

Significant references (minimum of five, but as many as needed to support the milestone), such as patents, contemporary newspaper articles, journal articles, or citations to pages in scholarly books. At least one of the references must be from a scholarly book or journal article. The references should establish the dates, location, and importance of the achievement. The references must be to works in English, or — if not in English — must be accompanied by an English translation (see below).

Supporting materials (supported formats: GIF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, DOC) which can be made publicly available on the IEEE History Center’s website (i.e. unencumbered by copyright, or with the copyright holder’s permission). All supporting materials must be in English, or if not in English, accompanied by an English translation. Images and photographs are especially appreciated, however, it is necessary that you list the copyright owner for these and obtain the copyright owner’s permission to reuse.

Submit this proposal to the IEEE History Committee for review. Only check this when the proposal is finished

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