While the process of stimulated emission was first discovered by Albert Einstein in 1916, it was not until 1960 that T.H. Maiman used these ideas and demonstrated the first laser device, the ruby laser. In 1964 the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to C.H. Townes, N.G. Basov, and A.M. Prokhorov.

By 1967, the possibility of high power laser devices had been recognized by the United States Air Force. Major General Donald Lamberson (AFIT PhD 1969) led much of the laser work at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory and in 1970 requested the creation of an academic program at the Air Force Institute of Technology focusing on high energy lasers. Since then AFIT has produced 83 PhD and over 160 MS graduates who have led the Air Force in the development of directed energy weapons.

In 1973, Don Lamberson scored the first laser shoot down on an aerial target at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico (pictured on the left).

Today, lasers driven by chemical reactions are capable of producing powers on the order of 1 million watts (1 MW). The Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Laser (COIL) was invented by the Air Force in 1977. One of the co-inventors was Nicholas Pchelkin (AFIT MS 1976). During the 1980's four AFIT PhD's led the demonstration of a 40,000 watt COIL device with exceptional beam quality. Now, the Air Force is procurring the Airborne Laser (ABL) which mounts a COIL weapon aboard a Boeing 747-400F to provide theater missile defense.

"It isn't very often an innovation comes along that revolutionizes our operational concepts, tactics and strategies. You can probably name them on one hand - the atomic bomb, the satellite, the jet engine, stealth, and the microchip. It’s possible the airborne laser is in this league.” Secretary Widnall (Airman Magazine, April ’97)

Several references on the history of high energy lasers include:

• "Airborne Laser: Bullets of Light", by Robert W. Duffner (Plenum Press, New York 1997)
• "Super Laser", a video produced by The Learning Channel (Discovery Communications Inc, 1998)
• "Chemical Lasers", by Glen Perram in Wiley Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, J Webster, editor (John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1998)