Ali Javan
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Ali Javan ( fa, علی جوان, Ali Javān; December 26, 1926 – September 12, 2016) was an
Iranian-American Iranian Americans are United States citizens or nationals who are of Iranian ancestry or who hold Iranian citizenship. Iranian Americans are among the most highly educated people in the United States. They have historically excelled in busine ...
physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...
and
inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
. He was the first to propose the concept of the
gas laser A gas laser is a laser in which an electric current is discharged through a gas to produce coherent light. The gas laser was the first continuous-light laser and the first laser to operate on the principle of converting electrical energy to a lase ...
in 1959 at the
Bell Telephone Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mul ...
. A successful prototype, constructed by him in collaboration with W. R. Bennett, Jr., and D. R. Herriott was demonstrated in 1960. His other contributions to science have been in the fields of
quantum physics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, qua ...
and
spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter wa ...
.


Life and career

Ali Javan was born in
Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
to
Iranian Azerbaijani Iranian Azerbaijanis (; az, ایران آذربایجانلیلاری, italics=no ), also known as Iranian Azeris, Iranian Turks, Persian Turks or Persian Azerbaijanis, are Iranians of Azerbaijani ethnicity who may speak the Azerbaijani lan ...
parents originally from
Tabriz Tabriz ( fa, تبریز ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the List of largest cities of Iran, sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quri Chay, Quru River valley in Iran's historic Aze ...
. He attended a school conducted by Zoroastrians.'' Smithsonian April 1971 (Volume 2, Number 1)'', ''Ali Javan and his 40 lasers'', Francis E. Wylie He graduated from
Alborz High School Mandegar Alborz High School ( fa, دبیرستان ماندگار البرز) is a college-preparatory high school located in the heart of Tehran, Iran. It is one of the first modern high schools in Asia and the Middle East, named after the Alborz ...
, and started his university studies at the School of Science at the
University of Tehran The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...
for a year. During a visit to New York in 1948, he attended several graduate courses at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. He received his Ph.D. in 1954 under his thesis advisor
Charles Townes Charles Hard Townes (July 28, 1915 – January 27, 2015) was an American physicist. Townes worked on the theory and application of the maser, for which he obtained the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics associated wi ...
without having received a bachelor's or master's degree. In 1955, Javan held a position as a Post Doctoral in the Radiation Laboratory and worked with Townes on the
atomic clock An atomic clock is a clock that measures time by monitoring the resonant frequency of atoms. It is based on atoms having different energy levels. Electron states in an atom are associated with different energy levels, and in transitions betwee ...
research, and used the microwave atom beam spectrometer to study the hyperfine structure of atoms like copper and thallium. In 1957, he published a paper on the theory of a three-level maser, and his discovery of the stimulated Raman effect that a Stokes-shifted Raman transition can produce amplification without requiring a population inversion. The effect was the precursor of a class of effects known as Lasers Without Inversion, or the LWI effect. He joined
Bell Telephone Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mul ...
in 1958 shortly after he conceived the working principle of his gas discharge Helium Neon laser, and subsequently submitted his paper for publication which was reviewed by
Samuel Goudsmit Samuel Abraham Goudsmit (July 11, 1902 – December 4, 1978) was a Dutch-American physicist famous for jointly proposing the concept of electron spin with George Eugene Uhlenbeck in 1925. Life and career Goudsmit was born in The Hague, Neth ...
in 1960. Javan's gas laser was the first continuously operating laser. It operated with a very low energy input of about 25 wattsSCIENCE AND THE CITIZEN. (1961). Scientific American, 204(3), 80-93. or 50 watts in the first model, compared to thousands of watts required for the
ruby laser A ruby laser is a solid-state laser that uses a synthetic ruby crystal as its gain medium. The first working laser was a ruby laser made by Theodore H. "Ted" Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories on May 16, 1960. Ruby lasers produce pulses of c ...
s to produce short bursts. The output laser power was ~ 1 milliwatt. In addition, the ruby laser is greatly surpassed in the narrowness of its output of wavelengths by the gas laser. Its beam of infrared light was slightly less than half an inch wide and spread no more than a foot over a distance of a mile. Just one day after its realization, the laser was used to transmit a telephone call. Javan later described the moment: "I put in a call to the lab. One of the team members answered and asked me to hold the line for a moment. Then I heard a voice r. Balik somewhat quivering in transmission, telling me that it was the laser light speaking to me." In 1966, Ali Javan and
Theodore Maiman Theodore Harold Maiman (July 11, 1927 – May 5, 2007) was an American engineer and physicist who is widely credited with the invention of the laser.Johnson, John Jr. (May 11, 2008). "Theodore H. Maiman, at age 32; scientist created the first LA ...
split a cash award presented to them by President Johnson honoring their work. In 1971, he became the director of
Symposium on Laser Physics Symposium on Laser Physics is an academic conference in the field of Laser Physics. SLP has been organized, once every four years since 1971. History The first Symposium on Laser Physics took place from August 29 to September 5, 1971, on the cam ...
, which was held on the campus of
University of Isfahan The University of Isfahan (UI) (Persian: دانشگاه اصفهان Dāneshgāh-e Esfāhān) is a state-operated university located in Isfahan, Iran. It is ranked among the top 10 universities in Iran. The university is located on Azadi square ...
. Javan carried out the first demonstration of optical heterodyne beats with lasers in 1961. Another major experiment was his observation of the detuning dip called the Lamb dip while scanning the frequency of a single-mode laser across the Doppler-broadened gain profile. Ali Javan and his colleagues pioneered in stabilizing laser frequencies with techniques utilizing the Lamb dip. In 1964, Javan and Townes devised experiments using lasers to test
special relativity In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory regarding the relationship between space and time. In Albert Einstein's original treatment, the theory is based on two postulates: # The laws o ...
including a variant of the Michelson-Morley ether drift experiment to study the anisotropy of space. Javan's group repeated the Michelson-Morley experiment with a new order of accuracy by turning their lasers in different directions with respect to the earth's motion. Any change in the velocity of light would show up as a change in the frequency of the output beam. The apparatus used was sensitive enough to detect a change as small as 0.03 millimeter per second (compared to the accuracy of 150 millimeters per second attained by
Albert A. Michelson Albert Abraham Michelson Royal Society of London, FFRS HFRSE (surname pronunciation anglicized as "Michael-son", December 19, 1852 – May 9, 1931) was a German-born American physicist of Polish/Jewish origin, known for his work on measuring the ...
). At MIT in the early 1960s, Ali Javan started a research project aimed at extending microwave frequency-measuring techniques into the infrared. He introduced the concept of an optical antenna of several wavelengths long which enables the near-complete confinement of an incident optical field coupled to it, and forming the antenna in nanoscale. For the first time an antenna was used to receive light and to transmit it to an infinitesimal receiving structure at its tip, observable only with an electron microscope. The antenna responded to infrared laser light and generated current vibrating at the frequencies of the incident beams. According to
John L. Hall John Lewis "Jan" Hall (born August 21, 1934) is an American physicist, and Nobel laureate in physics. He shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics with Theodor W. Hänsch and Roy Glauber for his work in precision spectroscopy. Biography Born ...
, during the 1962 American Physical Society meeting, Javan played a recording of the actual audio beat frequency between two of his lasers when they were tuned almost to the same optical frequency. Using this method Javan developed the first absolutely accurate measurement of the
speed of light The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant that is important in many areas of physics. The speed of light is exactly equal to ). According to the special theory of relativity, is the upper limit ...
. Javan first worked at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an associate professor of physics in 1961 and has remained Francis Wright Davis Professor Emeritus of physics since 1964. He continued researching into the area of "optical electronics", which envisions scaling electronic elements in such a way that they would be capable of handling frequencies as high as visible optical radiation frequencies. Javan died on September 12, 2016. He is survived by his wife, Marjorie, and by their two daughters, Lila and Maia.


Honors

* Member of
Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...
*
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
Fellow *
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
Fellow * 1962 -
Stuart Ballantine Medal {{notability, date=February 2018 The Stuart Ballantine Medal was a science and engineering award presented by the Franklin Institute, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was named after the US inventor Stuart Ballantine. Laureates *1947 - Geor ...
of the
Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...
for "''conception and development of the first continuous optical laser which utilised Neon and Helium''" * 1966 -
Fanny and John Hertz Foundation The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation is an American non-profit organization that awards fellowships to Ph.D. students in the applied physical, biological and engineering sciences. The fellowship provides $250,000 of support over five years. The ...
Medal * 1966 - Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship * 1975
Frederic Ives Medal
of the
Optical Society of America Optica (formerly known as The Optical Society (OSA) and before that as the Optical Society of America) is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals and organizes conference ...
* 1979 -
Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (german: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung) is a foundation established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and funded by the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Resear ...
Fellowship * 1993 -
Albert Einstein World Award of Science The Albert Einstein World Award for Science is an annual award given by the World Cultural Council "as a means of recognition and encouragement for scientific and technological research and development", with special consideration for researches ...
of the World Cultural Council * 2006 - Inducted into the
National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a U.S. patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also opera ...
* 2011 -
SPIE SPIE (formerly the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, later the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers) is an international not-for-profit professional society for optics and photonics technology, founded in 1955. It ...
Fellow * 2012 - First member of Eurasian Academy In 2007, Javan was ranked Number 12 on ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...
''s list of the "Top 100 Living Geniuses"."Top 100 living geniuses"
''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...
'' (28 October 2007)


See also

*
MIT Physics Department The MIT Department of Physics has over 120 faculty members, is often cited as the largest physics department in the United States, and hosts top-ranked programs. It offers the SB, SM, PhD, and ScD degrees. Fourteen alumni of the department an ...
*
List of Iranian scholars The following is a non-comprehensive list of Iranian scientists, engineers, and scholars who lived from antiquity up until the beginning of the modern age. For the modern era, see List of contemporary Iranian scientists, scholars, and engineers ...
* Higher Education in Iran *
List of lasers This is a list of laser types, their operational wavelengths, and their applications. Thousands of kinds of laser are known, but most of them are used only for specialized research. Overview Gas lasers Chemical lasers Used as directed-ener ...
*
List of laser articles This is a list of laser topics. A * 3D printing, additive manufacturing * Abnormal reflection * Above-threshold ionization * Absorption spectroscopy * Accelerator physics * Acoustic microscopy * Acousto-optic deflector * Acousto-optic modul ...


References

Notes Bibliography *


External links

*
US Patent 3,149,290

Profile
on the National Inventors Hall of Fame website
"Ali Javan: History of laser"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Javan, Ali 1926 births 2016 deaths Albert Einstein World Award of Science Laureates Alborz High School alumni American physicists Columbia University alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Physical Society Iranian Azerbaijanis Iranian emigrants to the United States Iranian expatriate academics 20th-century Iranian inventors Laser researchers Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences People from Tehran University of Tehran alumni