Theodore Maiman; Built 1st Working U.S. Laser

Theodore H. Maiman, 79, a physicist who built the first operational laser in the United States and promoted its many medical applications after initial public concern that he created a "death ray," died May 5 at Vancouver General Hospital in British Columbia. He had systemic mastocytosis, a rare genetic disorder.

Lasers amplify light waves of atoms that have been stimulated to radiate and concentrate them in a very narrow, intense beam. They have wide applicability in daily life, from performing surgical procedures to reading bar codes. They are featured in rock concert light shows and can be handy in removing tattoos.

Dr. Maiman made his laser discovery May 16, 1960, using a standard high-power flash lamp and a synthetic ruby crystal that fit into the palm of his hand. He described his approach -- done for California-based Hughes Research Laboratories on a tight budget -- as "ridiculously simple."

One of his major breakthroughs was the use of the ruby, which had previously and erroneously been thought unworkable for laser development. Having worked with rubies on the maser, an earlier technology of amplified microwaves, he calculated the range of chromium concentration in ruby crystal needed for the laser experiment.

Dr. Maiman performed his work at an aggressive moment in laser research and had antagonistic relationships with many fellow physicists competing to build a workable apparatus. Charles H. Townes of Columbia University, who invented the maser, was pursuing laser development with his brother-in-law, Arthur L. Schawlow of Bell Laboratories in New Jersey.

In 1960, Townes and Schawlow, both future Nobel laureates, were the first to receive a patent for an optical maser, in essence the laser. But it was a paper patent -- without any functioning device to support it. Meanwhile, physicist Gordon Gould, working for a New York defense researcher, filed competing patent claims. Gould coined the word "laser," an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.

Dr. Maiman created the first workable laser, and he always thought Townes and other powerful challengers tried early on to belittle his contribution.

In what Dr. Maiman also perceived as an anti-industry bias, a prominent American scientific journal rejected his laser findings. The British journal Nature soon printed it, though.

That July, to ensure that competing labs would not steal any publicity, Hughes arranged a New York news conference with Dr. Maiman.

"When it was all over, one reporter came up to me and asked me about using the laser in developing weapons," he told an interviewer decades later. "I told him I didn't think it very likely. He asked me if I would deny that the laser could be used that way, and I said no. The next day there were headlines in every newspaper around the country, screaming: 'L.A. man discovers science-fiction death ray.' "

He said he met actress Bette Davis at a Los Angeles party not long after the news conference. "The first thing she said to me was, 'How does it feel to have made something that brings such destruction to mankind?' My mouth dropped."

Years later, after the laser had been widely adopted for medical and industrial uses, he adopted his standard response: "I don't know of anyone who's been killed by a laser, even by accident, but I do know several people who have been healed by lasers."