In 1925, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of the atom laser, a completely different type of laser, but until now, no one could actually build one, so it was considered almost a practical impossibility. For the first time, a team of Italian scientists managed to create such a device.
The word Laser is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". Lasers are possible because of the way light interacts with electrons and the beam consists entirely of photons, released by
electrons as excess energy, when they drop from an outer to an inner level.
Much like an optical laser, an atom laser is a coherent beam that behaves like a wave, but no one had managed to create a coherent beam of atoms instead of photons. Massimo Inguscio and colleagues at the Florence University, Italy, created the first functioning laser, more than eight decades after it had been theorized by Einstein.
