Birth of the First Ruby Laser in China [Scanning Our Past]

In September 1961, the first ruby laser successfully debuted at Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics (CIOMP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), marking the beginning of laser science and technology in China
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. It operated with unique features about one year after T. H. Maiman’s first working model in the United States, and three months after the first laser in the former Soviet Union. It was unusual for China to achieve such an accomplishment given its technically backward state in the 1950s, and one cannot help but wonder how the Chinese scientists caught up with international trends in laser research. We want to answer some important questions about this historical event and explain the birth of the first ruby laser in China by examining the archives of the developmental process and interviewing some of the key members who pioneered China’s laser research.