Our History

1970

Nikolai Basov, V. A. Danyilychev, and Yu M. Popov create the excimer laser which became popular in lithography machines, and later on used in the medical field.

1976

LAGEOS-1 is launched, consisting of 2 satellites, each is a high-density passive laser reflector.

1979

Gordon Gould receives a patent covering a broad range of laser applications.

1982

CDs debut. Originally used for video technology, CDs are used for audio.

1985

Green-emitting helium-neon lasers are introduced by Melles Griot.

1988

North America and Europe are linked by first fiber-optic cable.

1994

The Quantum Cascade (QC) laser is invented at Bell Labs by Jerome Faist, Federico Capasso, Deborah L. Sivco, Carlo Sirtori, Albert L. Hutchinson and Alfred Y. Cho.

1996

The first pulsed atom laser, which uses matter instead of light, is demonstrated at MIT by Wolfgang Ketterle.

1997

Mars Global Surveyor, carrying the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, reaches Mars and begins mapping the planet's surface with a laser radar.

2004

Electronic switching in a Raman laser is demonstrated for the first time by Ozdal Boyraz and Bahram Jalali of UCLA.

2009

Laser market valued at nearly $6 billion.

2009

NASA launches LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter), it uses lasers to gather data about the high and low points on the moon.

2010

Short-pulse lasers are announced by Alfred Leitenstorfer and his research group from the University of Konstanz.

2010

Rainer Blatt and Piet O. Schmidt, along with their team, demonstrate a single-atom laser.

2014

Founding Father Dr. Charles Hard Townes passes away at the age of 99.

2018

LIA celebrates it's 50 year anniversary.