The first laser in Czechoslovakia was put into operation 57 years ago

The discovery of the ruby laser by Theodore Maiman in Malibu, CA on 16 May 1960, triggered extensive work around the world to make lasers. In the former Czechoslovakia, the first laser was successfully designed, built and operated at the Institute of Physics of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Prague. Karel Pátek (5. 5. 1927 – 25. 11. 1967), a distinguished research scientist working in the Department of Luminescence of the Institute, registered 1064-nm laser action in an optically-pumped Nd:glass rod on 9 April 1963. Pátek’s group studied a variety of different Nd³⁺ doped glasses using a number of experimental and theoretical techniques and, together with Jaroslav Pantoflíček at the Charles University in Prague, obtained valuable results in this area.

For more details you may contact: P. Köppl [kopplfzu [dot] cz; press release] and L. Juha [juhafzu [dot] cz; technical details]