Contributions of IBM toward the development of laser sources 1960 to the present

Research leading to the development of four-level lasers is discussed along with the observation of stimulated emission in GaAs, the development of a saturable dye Q-switch, and investigations related to the dye laser. Selective excitation by dye lasers is found to have many practical applications. Thus, dye lasers play an essential role in one of the two main technologies currently being developed for uranium isotope separation. Attention is also given to stimulated electronic Raman scattering (SERS), vacuum ultraviolet lasers, sources based on four-wave mixing, and an optical pulse compression technique.