The Year 2020 represents 60 years since the first successful operation of the laser. This anniversary provides an ideal occasion to reflect on the myriad ways that lasers have revolutionized society, and to consider the many new areas of research that continue to drive photonics in unexpected directions. SPIE Advanced Photonics has now published a brief article I wrote on this topic, as well as prepared a fantastic poster that you can download. The article is Open Access and can be accessed here. The poster can be downloaded directly here:
As an update, a similar article from a different perspective was published in the French Optical Society magazine Photoniques and this can be downloaded here.
