Refracting Lasers? Lasers are very important in our world today; but not too long ago, we did not have them! The main reason they did not think of them before the 1900's was because scientists did not know about stimulated emission. But in the early 1900's Albert Einstein was the first to describe this process. The next major breakthrough in lasers was when Charles H. Townes created a population inversion, which is needed to create …showed first 75 words of 1592 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1592 total…well (McKie, 1983). They're used in barcode scanners in stores and in the CD players we use to listen to music to. In industry they're used to cut or weld fragile electronic circuits or heavy metal parts like those in cars or planes. Lasers can melt a piece of steel so fast that the metal remains cool the whole time! In the future lasers will provide "satellite-to-satellite" communications system. The future of lasers is unlimited (Olesky, 1986).