Charles Townes: The inventor who invented the laser…

American physicist Charles Townes laid the foundations of a new technology with his work on the emission of stimulated radiation, known as a maser, and microwave amplification. Seeing that the photons striking the atoms are strengthened by the photons emitted from the atom, Charles Townes created great excitement in scientific circles with the first maser device he developed in 1951. Exposure of atoms to electromagnetic radiation in the Maser device caused them to become high-energy and emit an excited frequency. Charles Townes was the first to discover the laser beam thanks to the Maser device. The first laser device was produced by Theodore Maiman in 1960. With the invention of the laser, Charles Townes did very important work in quantum mechanics and infrared astronomy. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics with two physicists in 1964. Charles Townes was the head of the Science and Technology Advisory Committee for Apollo 11, which was sent to the Moon in 1969.

Who is Charles Townes?

Charles Hard Townes, known as Charles Townes, was born on July 28, 1915 in Greenville, South Carolina, USA. His father, Henry Townes, was a lawyer and was also an editor for a newspaper. His mother, Ellen, was a college graduate and became interested in farm work after her marriage. The family owned a 20-acre farm. Father Henry Townes, an amateur biologist, instilled a love of nature in little Charles and his brother Henry. His brother would later become a biologist specializing in insects. Little Charles also loved nature, and farm work made him happy. Little Charles, who learned to read and write shortly after starting school, became interested in science fiction books during this period. Henry Townes, who wanted his two children to receive a good education, established a small library on the farm to contribute to their education and acquired various reference books and encyclopedias. In such an environment, little Charles spent his free time reading scientific books and encyclopedias.

Charles H. Townes, a renowned physicist who invented the laser and the maser, died in Oakland, California on Tuesday at the age of 99. Townes' inventions earned him the Nobel Prize in physics in 1964. Laser stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

Charles Townes, who graduated from Greenville High School at the age of 15, wanted to do his university education in physics and entered Furman University. During his Furman years, he wrote for the school newspaper just like his father. At the same time, he became the curator of the natural history museum established within the school. After completing his undergraduate education in 1935, he received a master's degree in physics from Duke University. He completed his doctorate at the California Institute of Technology in 1939. The subject of his doctoral thesis was the measurement of the concentration and nuclear spin of the heavy carbon isotope. II. With the onset of World War II, he began working on radar bombing systems at Bell Labs. He married Frances Brown in 1941. From this marriage, he had 4 children named Linda, Ellen, Carla and Holly. He transferred to Columbia University in 1948. Two years later, he was appointed as a professor at the university. During this period, he began to work on the maser. He served as executive director at the Columbia Radiation Laboratory until 1952. Until 1955, he also assumed the presidency of the physics department.

The Invention of the Laser

At Columbia University, Charles Townes focused on the work on the maser, which later led him to invent the laser. Microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, known as a maser for short, was an electromagnetic wave with amplitude generated by the help of radiation as a result of external excitation of atoms. Working at microwave frequency, the maser could influence the vibrations of molecular waves with the help of stimulated radiation, and amplify low-level waves. It was possible for the atom to emit a photon with the same properties as a result of a photon hitting an atom with the help of the maser, which makes use of the internal energy of atoms and molecules. During his studies on Maser, Charles Townes saw that photons hitting atoms are strengthened by photons emitted from the atom. Maser originally consisted of an active medium in the gaseous or solid state. Exposing this environment to an electromagnetic radiation caused the atoms inside to become high-energy with this effect and emit an excited frequency. Optical assemblies produced from this principle produced parallel waves with a single output frequency.

Developed by Charles Townes, the maser offered a new way of producing intense and precisely coherent radiation beams. The high frequencies produced using Maser were the most important stage of the adventure leading to the invention of the laser. In 1953, Charles Townes, together with James Gordon and Herbert Zeiger, who were working on radiation emission at Columbia University, succeeded in producing the first ammonia maser. In this device, excited ammonia molecules were used for microwave amplification at a frequency of 24 GHz. Using ammonia gas as the active medium, this device could also be used in the optical field and infrared region. Thanks to the Maser device, Charles Townes was the first to discover the laser beam. The word laser is derived from the expression light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, which means light amplification by stimulated radiation emission. The first laser device made using this technology was produced by Theodore Maiman in 1960. Although Theodore Maiman is shown as the inventor of the laser in some sources, the main inventor of the laser was Charles Townes. Other scientists also contributed to the development of the laser.

Thanks to his work on Maser, Charles Townes caused great excitement in the scientific community in the second half of the 1950s. All important discoveries and inventions that were believed to contribute to the dominance of the Cold War-era America against the USSR were welcomed by the US administration with great interest and supported in every sense. In 1956, Charles Townes was elected a full member of the National Academy of Sciences. He won the National Academy of Sciences Prize in Physics in 1958. Between 1959 and 1961, he served as vice president and research director at the National Institute of Defense Analysis. He later became a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics with two physicists in 1964. In this process, many scientists made various contributions to quantum electronics with maser and laser tools. Charles Townes and his team achieved the greatest success in infrared astronomy, thanks to the laser beam. Detecting the existence of complex molecules in intergalactic space in space, this team has revealed many theories about black holes.

In 1967, Charles Townes transferred to the University of California and started an infrared astronomy program. Charles Townes was the head of the Science and Technology Advisory Committee for Apollo 11, which was sent to the Moon in 1969. This development, one of the most important scientific achievements of the 20th century, was also one of the most important achievements in human history. The first manned flight to the lunar surface was the pinnacle of achievements in space technologies. Scientists led by Charles Townes detected the presence of ammonia and water molecules in the interstellar medium using the laser beam. Following these successes that gave the USA a strategic advantage in space studies, Charles Townes was appointed as a consultant in many space projects supported by the US government. His infrared astronomy program at the University of California was followed with interest by the scientific community. He has served as a senior advisor on space programs to all US governments, from Harry Truman to Bill Clinton. Since the 1980s, it has followed a stance that supports the peaceful use of atomic energy. He died on January 27, 2015 in California.

The invention of the laser was one of the most important inventions of the 20th century. Starting from the 1960s, the use of maser and laser devices in experiments investigating the foundations of quantum mechanics provided very important data for discovering the structure of the universe. The thesis that there is a big black hole at the center of the galaxy was developed thanks to the invention of the laser. The applications of the laser, which is a very important invention according to the current scientific and technical achievements, gave the most successful results in the field of medicine after quantum physics. Thanks to the invention of the laser, it has become extremely easy to treat retinal tears, heal skin diseases, and get rid of birthmarks. The invention of the laser, which brought many innovations in the field of surgery, opened a new page in the field of engineering and field research. Laser scanning of the parts to be designed with the reverse engineering method increased the efficiency in the design and production processes with 3D technologies. The invention of the laser also had important consequences for daily life. With the development of barcode reader technologies in 1974, laser technologies began to enter our daily lives.