The 50th anniversary of the laser has stimulated worldwide interest in the history of quantum electronics. This special collection, “Beginning of the Laser Era in the USSR,” presents early Soviet pioneering works that had a significant impact on laser science and quantum electronics. Several of the papers have never been published in English and were not generally available outside the USSR.

via Optics InfoBase – Laser Era in the USSR: LaserFest.

OSA has put a collection of early USSR papers on lasers online.

A gallery on lasers from NewScientist.

The original “solution looking for a problem”, the laser is now 50 years old but still seems futuristic. This gallery charts the evolution of a technology that underpins everything from the fibre-optic backbone of the internet to the search for clean fusion energy.

via Gallery -  New Scientist.

This issue celebrates what has been one of the outstanding success stories in physics. We take a look at the laser’s huge impact on popular culture (think Goldfinger and laser-art shows) and on everyday life (DVDs, laser pointers, bar-code scanners). We also relive the race to build the world’s first working laser – a story still laced with controversy. Find out about the technological impact of lasers in fibre optics and at the quest for green-wavelength laser diodes that could let mobile phones project images onto any surface. Basic research gets a look-in, too – in terms of both ultrahigh power and ultrafast lasers. Don’t miss our special timeline of laser history and see what you think of our six experts’ predictions for where laser science will go next.

CARDIFF, UK, 23 April 2010 – SPIE Europe, Cardiff, UK, has assumed ownership of the website optics.org, in a transition from ownership by IOP Publishing of Bristol, UK.

“We are very pleased to take the lead in continuing this robust resource for the international optics community,” said Eugene Arthurs, executive director of SPIE. “optics.org is well respected and aligned very closely with our objective to support the European community in advancing photonics, which has been identified as a ‘Key Enabling Technology’ by the European Commission largely through the efforts of Photonics21.”

“The deal is a win-win for optics.org readers and advertisers, as well as for SPIE and ourselves,” explained Michael Bray, finance director at IOP Publishing. “With a new publisher optics.org will continue to provide a must-read information service for optics and photonics professionals.”

optics.org was originally founded by SPIE in 1996. IOP Publishing came on as a partner in 1998 and took over full ownership in 2000.

The optics.org website carries a full gamut of continually updated research and industry news and analysis for the optics and photonics community.

via optics.org

1. Inventing the Light Fantastic

The history of the laser: An idea that began with Albert Einstein inspired a race to create a special beam of light that has since infiltrated numerous aspects of everyday life. (p. 18)

2. Lasing Beyond Light

Laser physicists have set their sights on new types of waves — manufacturing beams of sound, creating plasma swells and looking for ripples in spacetime. (p. 28)

3. Laser pioneer reflects on making Einstein’s idea real

Science News reporter Ron Cowen's Q&A with Nobel laureate and laser-technology pioneer Charles Townes. (p. 36)

Recommend to read.

They also published a flash version of timeline of the laser.

The mature technology of the QCL is now finding commercial applications.

Federico Capasso and collaborators invented the quantum cascade laser (QCL), a fundamentally new light source whose emission wavelength can be designed to cover the entire spectrum from mid to far infrared by tailoring the active region layer thickness. The Capasso Group at Harvard University has expanded QCL research to new coherent light sources utilizing intracavity nonlinear optical effects.

Source: SPIE

* Spotlight articles will be selected by OSA Topical and Associate Editors to show the breadth and quality of OSA content.
* Each Spotlight article will be made open access and be accompanied by original summaries written in plain English.
* Journal Editors will be encouraged to identify articles for Spotlight that have excellent scientific quality, are representative of the level of work taking place in a specific area, and put other work in perspective.
* Readers will be able to post comments to the Spotlight website, creating the potential for dialogue between author and reader (and among readers).

It will be a great source for finding interesting research works.

Virtual Journal of Laser is a web tool to help laser researchers follow publications from major academic journals. It automatically aggregate updates from Physics or Optics journals. Only abstracts of articles that are directly related to laser are imported into the system. By voting, commenting and simply visiting, interesting papers will be promoted and become more visible and easy to find.

It has been rebuilt, now one can vote on papers to promote them. It can sort popularity of papers with an algorithm similar to “radioactivity”. I use it for checking new papersr and see what other people are interested in.