On May 15, 1960 (May 16, Beijing time), at the Hughes Research Laboratory in the United States, Mayman successfully made the world's first operable ruby laser with a wavelength of 0.6943 microns for 60 years. On the 60th anniversary of Mayman's invention of the laser, we will celebrate with the annual International Day of Light.

The laser is another major invention in the history of human science after atomic energy, computers, and semiconductors since the 20th century. Atomic energy has enormous energy and destructive power. On the basis of atomic energy, mankind has established a global nuclear industry, and nuclear energy is used in military, energy, industrial, aerospace, and other fields; semiconductors are the cornerstone of the electronics industry, and are used in automobiles, energy, consumer electronics, aviation In many fields such as aerospace and medical treatment, semiconductor applications are more extensive than atomic energy; the application field of computers has expanded from the initial military scientific research applications to various fields of society, and a huge computer industry has been formed, which has driven global Technological progress has led to profound social changes. Computers have spread throughout the government, enterprises, families, and individuals, and have become an indispensable tool in the information society; lasers have become an important means of advanced manufacturing technology and upgrading and transforming traditional industries. It is used in almost all fields of China's national economy, such as material processing, communication and optical storage, medical and cosmetics, research and development and military, instruments and sensors, entertainment displays, and additive manufacturing.

Due to historical reasons, China's laser application market started late overall. At the beginning of the 21st century, the domestic high-end laser market was basically monopolized by foreign companies, resulting in expensive raw materials for domestic production of lasers, high prices for terminal lasers and laser processing equipment, which limited laser technology. Widely used in manufacturing industry. Around 2009, with the innovation of domestic scientific research institutions and enterprises, China's laser industry has achieved rapid development. The domestic laser industry has basically formed laser materials/chips, laser key components, supporting parts, lasers, laser systems, application development, The development of the entire industry chain including public service platforms.

With the in-depth implementation of the "Made in China 2025" action plan and the "Belt and Road" strategy, the manufacturing industry's demand for automation and intelligent production models is increasing. Laser technology is a cutting-edge technology in modern high-end manufacturing and will play a role in the process of industrial transformation and upgrading. Important role, laser processing applications have also expanded from the beginning of light industry fields such as food, textile and electronics to heavy industry fields such as automobiles, ships, aerospace, aviation and high-speed rail. In addition to this, China's laser market also extends to emerging fields such as consumer electronics, communications, display, medical treatment, plastic surgery, additive manufacturing, and data sensors. Benefiting from the strong support of national policies and strong market demand, a large number of outstanding national enterprises have emerged in the laser industry to help the rapid development of my country's laser industry. In 2018, my country's laser industry market revenue reached 71.3 billion yuan, an increase of 18.05% year-on-year. In 2019, my country's laser industry market scale reached 78.6 billion yuan, a record high, and my country's laser industry is moving towards a market scale of 100 billion yuan.

(Reprinted from: Internet)