A history of high-power laser research and development in the United Kingdom

Danson, Colin N.; White, Malcolm; Barr, John R.M.; Bett, Thomas; Blyth, Peter; Bowley, David; Brenner, Ceri; Collins, Robert J.; Croxford, Neal; Dangor, A.E. Bucker; Devereux, Laurence; Dyer, Peter E.; Dymoke-Bradshaw, Anthony; Edwards, Christopher B.; Ewart, Paul; Ferguson, Allister I.; Girkin, John M.; Hall, Denis R.; Hanna, David C.; Harris, Wayne; Hillier, David I.; Hooker, Christopher J.; Hooker, Simon M.; Hopps, Nicholas; Hull, Janet; Hunt, David; Jaroszynski, Dino A.; Kempenaars, Mark; Kessler, Helmut; Knight, Sir Peter L.; Knight, Steve; Knowles, Adrian; Lewis, Ciaran L.S.; Lipton, Ken S.; Littlechild, Abby; Littlechild, John; Maggs, Peter; Malcolm, Graham P.A.; Mangles, Stuart P.D.; Martin, William; McKenna, Paul; Moore, Richard O.; Morrison, Clive; Najmudin, Zulfikar; Neely, David; New, Geoff H.C.; Norman, Michael J.; Paine, Ted; Parker, Anthony W.; Penman, Rory R.; Pert, Geoff J.; Pietraszewski, Chris; Randewich, Andrew; Rizvi, Nadeem H.; Seddon, Nigel; Sheng, Zheng-Ming; Slater, David; Smith, Roland A.; Spindloe, Christopher; Taylor, Roy; Thomas, Gary; Tisch, John W.G.; Wark, Justin S.; Webb, Colin; Wiggins, S. Mark; Willford, Dave; Winstone, Trevor

doi:10.1017/hpl.2021.5

A history of high-power laser research and development in the United Kingdom

Danson, Colin N.; White, Malcolm; Barr, John R.M.; Bett, Thomas; Blyth, Peter; Bowley, David; Brenner, Ceri; Collins, Robert J.; Croxford, Neal; Dangor, A.E. Bucker; Devereux, Laurence; Dyer, Peter E.; Dymoke-Bradshaw, Anthony; Edwards, Christopher B.; Ewart, Paul; Ferguson, Allister I.; Girkin, John M.; Hall, Denis R.; Hanna, David C.; Harris, Wayne; Hillier, David I.; Hooker, Christopher J.; Hooker, Simon M.; Hopps, Nicholas; Hull, Janet; Hunt, David; Jaroszynski, Dino A.; Kempenaars, Mark; Kessler, Helmut; Knight, Sir Peter L.; Knight, Steve; Knowles, Adrian; Lewis, Ciaran L.S.; Lipton, Ken S.; Littlechild, Abby; Littlechild, John; Maggs, Peter; Malcolm, Graham P.A.; Mangles, Stuart P.D.; Martin, William; McKenna, Paul; Moore, Richard O.; Morrison, Clive; Najmudin, Zulfikar; Neely, David; New, Geoff H.C.; Norman, Michael J.; Paine, Ted; Parker, Anthony W.; Penman, Rory R.; Pert, Geoff J.; Pietraszewski, Chris; Randewich, Andrew; Rizvi, Nadeem H.; Seddon, Nigel; Sheng, Zheng-Ming; Sl...

Authors

Colin N. Danson

Malcolm White

John R.M. Barr

Thomas Bett

Peter Blyth

David Bowley

Ceri Brenner

Robert J. Collins

Neal Croxford

A.E. Bucker Dangor

Laurence Devereux

Peter E. Dyer

Anthony Dymoke-Bradshaw

Christopher B. Edwards

Paul Ewart

Allister I. Ferguson

Professor John Girkin j.m.girkin@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Denis R. Hall

David C. Hanna

Wayne Harris

David I. Hillier

Christopher J. Hooker

Simon M. Hooker

Nicholas Hopps

Janet Hull

David Hunt

Dino A. Jaroszynski

Mark Kempenaars

Helmut Kessler

Sir Peter L. Knight

Steve Knight

Adrian Knowles

Ciaran L.S. Lewis

Ken S. Lipton

Abby Littlechild

John Littlechild

Peter Maggs

Graham P.A. Malcolm

Stuart P.D. Mangles

William Martin

Paul McKenna

Richard O. Moore

Clive Morrison

Zulfikar Najmudin

David Neely

Geoff H.C. New

Michael J. Norman

Ted Paine

Anthony W. Parker

Rory R. Penman

Geoff J. Pert

Chris Pietraszewski

Andrew Randewich

Nadeem H. Rizvi

Nigel Seddon

Zheng-Ming Sheng

David Slater

Roland A. Smith

Christopher Spindloe

Roy Taylor

Gary Thomas

John W.G. Tisch

Justin S. Wark

Colin Webb

S. Mark Wiggins

Dave Willford

Trevor Winstone

Abstract

The first demonstration of laser action in ruby was made in 1960 by T. H. Maiman of Hughes Research Laboratories, USA. Many laboratories worldwide began the search for lasers using different materials, operating at different wavelengths. In the UK, academia, industry and the central laboratories took up the challenge from the earliest days to develop these systems for a broad range of applications. This historical review looks at the contribution the UK has made to the advancement of the technology, the development of systems and components and their exploitation over the last 60 years.

Citation

Danson, C. N., White, M., Barr, J. R., Bett, T., Blyth, P., Bowley, D., …Winstone, T. (2021). A history of high-power laser research and development in the United Kingdom. High Power Laser Science and Engineering, 9, Article e18. https://doi.org/10.1017/hpl.2021.5

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jan 26, 2021
Online Publication Date	Apr 27, 2021
Publication Date	2021
Deposit Date	May 24, 2021
Publicly Available Date	May 25, 2021
Journal	High Power Laser Science and Engineering
Print ISSN	2095-4719
Electronic ISSN	2052-3289
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	9
Article Number	e18
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1017/hpl.2021.5

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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press in association with Chinese Laser Press