Gordon Gould American physicist Date of Birth: 17.07.1920 Country: USA

1. Biography of Gordon Gould
2. Early Life and Education
3. Manhattan Project and Academic Pursuits
4. The Invention of the Laser
5. Recognition and Patents
6. Later Life and Legacy

Biography of Gordon Gould

Gordon Gould, an American physicist, is widely known as the inventor of the laser. However, this invention is sometimes credited to Theodore Maiman, who created the first working laser. Gould gained significant attention due to his 30-year legal battle with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Additionally, he fought to prevent laser manufacturers from infringing on his patents.

Early Life and Education

Gordon Gould, the eldest of three sons, was born on July 17, 1920, in New York City. His father was the chief editor of 'Scholastic Magazine Publications' in New York. Gould grew up in Scarsdale, where he attended school. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Union College and a Master's degree from Yale University, specializing in optics and spectroscopy.

Manhattan Project and Academic Pursuits

From March 1944 to January 1945, Gould was involved in the Manhattan Project, but he was dismissed due to his affiliation with the Communist Political Association. In 1949, he began working on his doctoral dissertation at Columbia University, focusing on optics and microwave spectroscopy. His research was supervised by Nobel laureate Polykarp Kusch.

The Invention of the Laser

In 1956, Gould proposed the use of "optical pumping" to excite a maser and began discussing his idea with maser inventor Charles Townes. Townes provided Gould with advice on obtaining a patent for his innovation and agreed to testify on his behalf. By 1957, many scientists, including Townes, were exploring ways to convert pump energy. In November of the same year, Gould realized that an appropriate optical resonator could be made using two mirrors in a Fabry-Pérot interferometer configuration. Unlike previously considered designs, this approach was expected to produce a narrow, coherent, and intense beam. Creating population inversion levels through optical pumping the active medium should not have been difficult since there was no need for the sides of the plane to be reflective. Gould coined the acronym LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) for his invention. Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes independently discovered the importance of a Fabry-Pérot resonator amplifier three months after Gould and named their device an "optical maser."

Recognition and Patents

Gould's name first gained widespread recognition at a conference presentation in 1959, and despite resistance from Schawlow and his colleagues, Gould was acknowledged as the inventor of the laser. While trying to obtain a patent for the laser, Gould mistakenly believed that he needed to first create a working model and left Columbia University without receiving his Ph.D. He joined the research company "Technical Research Group." However, due to technical difficulties and personal problems that the government brought upon him, Theodore Maiman from Hughes Research Laboratories was the first to create a working laser. Gordon's thirty-year patent war ended with him eventually obtaining 47 patents, with "optical pumping," "colliding pulse pumping," and permissions for using the inventions being the most significant. Despite the ongoing debates about Gould's role in the actual invention of the laser, he was named a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1991.

Later Life and Legacy

Gordon Gould passed away from old age on September 16, 2005, in New York City.