Ali Javan, and William R. Bennett, and Donald Herriott, constructed the first gas laser

Later that year, the Iranian physicist Ali Javan, and William R. Bennett, and Donald Herriott, constructed the first gas laser, using helium and neon that was capable of continuous operation in the infrared (U.S. Patent 3,149,290). later, Javan received the Albert Einstein Award in 1993. Basov and Javan proposed the semiconductor laser diode concept.