Experimental Laser Crystal
date: label: date made
content: 1962
notes: label: Description
content: A major breakthrough marks only the beginning of a scientist's work. In November 1960 Peter Sorokin and Mirek Stevenson, at IBM's Watson Research Center, successfully demonstrated a second type of laser. They energized a crystal of calcium-fluorine treated with a variety of uranium (written in chemical symbols as CaF2:U3+) to generate a pulse of laser light.
label: Description
content: Sorokin and other colleagues experimented with many elements as they learned more about both pulsed and continuous-wave lasers. This crystal, from mid-1962, was the first one made of strontium, fluorine and samarium (SrF2:Sm2+) to successfully operate. Laser research was a very competitive field. Despite their efforts at IBM, Sorokin told museum staff that a team from Bell Labs, "made the first CW [continuous wave] solid-state laser using an ordinary crystal of CaF2:U3+. After that achievement we abandoned our CW efforts and went on to other topics." Those other topics included significant early work on generating laser beams using liquid dyes.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Laser
label: Subject
content: Invention
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
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content: Energy & Power
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content: Lasers
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from International Business Machines Corp., Thomas J. Watson Research Center
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1985.0268.06
label: catalog number
content: 1985.0268.06
label: accession number
content: 1985.0268
objectType: label: Object Name
content: crystal
label: Object Name
content: laser crystal
label: Other Terms
content: crystal; Lasers/Masers
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: strontium (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: samarium (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: fluorine (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: white (overall color)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3/4 in x 3/16 in; 1.905 cm x .47625 cm