Physicist, born in Los Angeles, California, USA. He studied physics at Colorado and Stanford universities, and joined Hughes Research Laboratories, Miami, in 1955. He was much interested in the maser, devised in 1953 to produce coherent microwave radiation. He improved its design, and by 1960 devised the first working laser, which gave coherent visible light. From the 1960s he founded companies to develop laser devices, and in 1977 joined TRW Electronics of California.
Theodore Harold Maiman (born July 11, 1927) is an American physicist that invented the first operable laser device (U.S. Patent 3353115). Maiman received the Japan Prize in 1987.
In his teens, Maiman earned college money by repairing electrical appliances and radios. in engineering physics in 1949 then went on to do graduate work at Stanford University, where he received an M.S. In 1962 Maiman founded his own company, Korad Corporation, devoted to the research, development, and manufacture of lasers. He formed Maiman Associates in 1968 after selling Korad to Union Carbide Corporation
Maiman's laser, based on a synthetic ruby crystal grown by Dr. Ralph L. After a protracted legal battle, some key laser patents were awarded to Gordon Gould.
Due to his work on the laser, he was twice nominated for a Nobel Prize and was given membership in both the National Academies of Science and Engineering.
User Comments Add a comment…