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Which gases were used in the first gas laser at Bell Labs?
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laser
Basic laser components.
The first gas laser, developed at Bell Labs in December 1960 by Ali Javan, William Bennett, Jr., and Donald Herriott, utilized a mixture of helium and neon gases.1
In this device, the helium atoms capture energy from electrons passing through the gas and transfer that energy to the neon atoms, which then emit light. This specific configuration generated a continuous infrared beam.21