
Theodore H. Maiman
Wolf Prize Laureate in Physics 1984

Theodore H. Maiman
Affiliation at the time of the award:
Maiman Associates, USA
Award citation:
“for his realization of the first operating laser, the pulsed three level ruby laser.”
Prize share:
Theodore H. Maiman
Erwin L. Hahn
Sir Peter Hirsch
Dr. Theodore H. Maiman. The impact of lasers on many technological fields is well known. They are used, for example, as cutting tools in metallurgical and textile industry, as scalpels in surgery, as alignment devices in the construction industry, as length and frequency standards in scientific applications. The original ruby laser of Maiman was instrumental in establishing the new sub field of non-linear optics, which explores the properties of matter at extremely high light intensities. It has also been used in ranging experiments to measure the earth-moon distance with retro-reflectors set-up by the moon astronauts.
