Prologue: May 16, 1960, Malibu, California. 1. The Laser Race. 2. Microwaves Are the First Step. 3. Leaping a Few Orders of Magnitude: The Optical Maser. 4. The

Beam Weapons examines the directed-energy weapons that became a central part of the Reagan Administration's Strategic Defense Initiative, better known as "Star

In 1954, Charles Townes invented the laser's microwave cousin, the maser. The next logical step was to extend the same physical principles to the shorter wavele

This biography is a personal portrait of one of the best-known Dutch physicists, Nicolaas Bloembergen. Born in 1920 in Dordrecht, Bloembergen studied physics in

The whole story of laser weapons with a focus on its many interesting characters and sometimes bizarre schemes The laser--a milestone invention of the mid-twent