30, 20, and 10 Years Ago in OPN

“Curiously … the laser has not yet made a major impact in … chemical analysis even in spite of such astonishing successes as ‘one-atom detection,’ which was first reported nearly a decade ago. At this time there are fewer than a handful of different analytical instruments that utilize laser spectroscopic capabilities as an integral component for the analysis. Why is this? Not unexpectedly, there are a number of reasons including the fact that lasers are relatively expensive, there is a large variety of different types of lasers (who could afford to have all the different lasers to cover ir-vis-uv, both cw and pulsed) and the fact that it usually takes a person with specialized training to operate them.”