Arthur Schawlow, 77, Nobelist for Lasers, Dies (original) (raw)
U.S.|Arthur Schawlow, 77, Nobelist for Lasers, Dies
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/30/us/arthur-schawlow-77-nobelist-for-lasers-dies.html
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- April 30, 1999
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April 30, 1999
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Arthur L. Schawlow, co-winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics for his role in the development of lasers, died on Wednesday at a hospital in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 77 and lived in Palo Alto.
The cause was congestive heart failure resulting from leukemia, said a spokesman at Stanford University, where Dr. Schawlow was an emeritus physics professor.
Dr. Schawlow gained fame in the 1950's when he collaborated with Dr. Charles H. Townes in designing features of a device that came to be known as a laser -- after Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
Conflicting claims to the invention of lasers persisted for many years, but there is general agreement that the first working laser was built by Dr. Theodore H. Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, Calif. The device was first operated on May 16, 1960.
Dr. Schawlow and Dr. Townes worked together at Columbia University to develop a device called a maser -- the microwave ancestor of the laser -- a device that Dr. Townes had invented. Their goal was to invent something that would amplify light in the same way that the maser amplified microwaves.
Dr. Schawlow conceived the idea of building a chamber, or ''cavity,'' consisting of a synthetic ruby that would act as a kind of echo chamber for light. At one end of the ruby was a highly polished mirror and at the other end was a semi-transparent mirror that would allow light to pass through once it had been amplified to a certain threshold level.
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