Charles Townes’s original laser proposal envisioned a low-power coherent light source for communications. Theodore Maiman’s demonstration of the first laser at Hughes Research Laboratories in 1960 produced bright pulses of red light and gave great hopes for bigger and better things, especially in the Pentagon. Two years later, a Sunday newspaper supplement feature titled “The Incredible Laser: Death Ray or Hope” illustrated with science-fictional laser cannons, opined: The laser may have greater impact than any discovery so far in the burgeoning field of electronics, which has already brought us radar, transistors, satellite tracking networks, [and] TV. The technological revolution it brings about may dwarf any in the past [1] .

中文翻译：

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令人难以置信的火箭发动机激光 [扫描我们的过去]

Charles Townes 最初的激光提议设想了一种用于通信的低功率相干光源。1960 年，西奥多·迈曼 (Theodore Maiman) 在休斯研究实验室演示了第一台激光器，产生了明亮的红光脉冲，并为更大更好的事物带来了巨大希望，尤其是在五角大楼。两年后，一份题为“不可思议的激光：死亡射线或希望”的周日报纸增刊用科幻激光大炮进行了说明，认为：激光可能比迄今为止在新兴电子领域的任何发现都具有更大的影响，该领域已经已经给我们带来了雷达、晶体管、卫星跟踪网络和 [和] 电视。它带来的技术革命可能使过去的任何一次革命都相形见绌[1]。