Light and Matter Ic / Licht und Materie Ic

The concept of the laser came into existence more than a decade ago when ScHAWLOW and TowNES showed that the maser principle could be extended to the optical region. Since then this field has developed at an incredible pace which hardly anybody could have foreseen. The laser turned out to be a meeting place for such different disciplines as optics (e.g. spectroscopy), optical pumping, radio engine...