The term laser is formed from the initials of the words that describe the specific technology involved: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. To put it simply, a laser – which generates intensive, highly concentrated beams of light – is a light amplifier.

Its history began in New York in 1960. On 7th July of that year, Theodore H. Maiman demonstrated a lamp which emitted a brilliant red line – a concentrated beam of light. And this is how the world’s first laser, which Maiman had constructed using the precious stone ruby, worked: a flash lamp was shone on the ruby causing some of the ruby molecules to oscillate. The molecules are then in an excited, high-energy state. However, each molecule attempts to return to its normal state. When it does so, it emits a particle of light, also known as a photon – a phenomenon that Albert Einstein had already noted in 1917. Laser light occurs when a very large number of ruby molecules are excited, because they can stimulate each other when they return to their initial state.

As of 1960, the first solid-state and gas lasers were built by Nikolai Gennadiyevich Basov and Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov in the Soviet Union and Maiman and All Javan in the United States. The semiconductor laser followed in 1962 and the dye laser some time later.

Today, lasers have become a vital component in many areas of technology. This includes the field of medicine in which laser applications are used every day, ensuring the precision of surgical techniques and treatments. The concentrated artificial light also allows minimal invasiveness; limited side-effects and is therefore especially gentle on the patient.

Intensive laser beams can cut through and cauterise human tissue in fractions of a second without damaging the surrounding tissue. A huge variety of conditions can be treated safely and effectively from vasodilatation to carcinomas of the liver. Over three million eye operations involving laser therapy are performed each year worldwide.