Editing Maser (section)

==History==
The theoretical principles governing the operation of a maser were first described by [[Joseph Weber]] of the [[University of Maryland, College Park]] at the Electron Tube Research Conference in June 1952 in [[Ottawa]],<ref>[https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4941 American Institute of Physics Oral History Interview with Weber]</ref> with a summary published in the June 1953 Transactions of the Institute of Radio Engineers Professional Group on Electron Devices,<ref>{{cite book |date=2004 |title=The History of the Laser |author=Mario Bertolotti |publisher=CRC Press |page=180 |isbn=978-1420033403}}</ref> and simultaneously by [[Nikolay Basov]] and [[Alexander Prokhorov]] from [[Lebedev Physical Institute|Lebedev Institute of Physics]], at an ''All-Union Conference on Radio-Spectroscopy'' held by the [[USSR Academy of Sciences]] in May 1952, published in October 1954.

Independently, [[Charles H. Townes|Charles Hard Townes]], [[James P. Gordon]], and H. J. Zeiger built the first ammonia maser at [[Columbia University]] in 1953. This device used stimulated emission in a stream of energized [[ammonia]] molecules to produce amplification of microwaves at a frequency of about 24.0 [[hertz|gigahertz]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gordon |first1=J. P. |last2=Zeiger |first2=H. J. |last3=Townes |first3=C. H. |title=The Maser—New Type of Microwave Amplifier, Frequency Standard, and Spectrometer |journal=Phys. Rev. |date=1955 |volume=99 |issue=4 |page=1264 |bibcode=1955PhRv...99.1264G |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.99.1264 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Townes later worked with [[Arthur Leonard Schawlow|Arthur L. Schawlow]] to describe the principle of the ''optical maser'', or ''laser'',<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schawlow |first1=A.L. |last2=Townes |first2=C.H. |title=Infrared and Optical Masers |journal=Physical Review |date=15 December 1958 |volume=112 |issue=6 |pages=1940–1949 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.112.1940 |doi-access=free |bibcode=1958PhRv..112.1940S}}</ref> of which [[Theodore Harold Maiman|Theodore H. Maiman]] created the first working model in 1960.

For their research in the field of stimulated emission, Townes, Basov and Prokhorov were awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 1964.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1964 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1964/summary/ |access-date=2020-08-27 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}</ref>