Nick Holonyak
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Nick Holonyak Jr. was an American engineer and educator. He is noted particularly for his 1962 invention and first demonstration of a semiconductor laser diode that emitted visible light. This device was the forerunner of the first generation of commercial light-emitting diodes (LEDs). He was then working at a General Electric research laboratory near Syracuse, New York. He left General Electric in 1963 and returned to his alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he later became John Bardeen Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics.
Holonyak in 2002
Former General Electric laboratory near Syracuse, New York where Holonyak demonstrated red light from a diode laser and light-emitting diode in 1962.
Laser diode
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A laser diode is a semiconductor device similar to a light-emitting diode in which a diode pumped directly with electrical current can create lasing conditions at the diode's junction.
A packaged laser diode shown with a penny for scale*488 nm: InGaN green-blue laser; became widely available in mid-2018.
The laser diode chip removed and placed on the eye of a needle for scale
A laser diode with the case cut away. The laser diode chip is the small black chip at the front; a photodiode at the back is used to control output power.
SEM (scanning electron microscope) image of a commercial laser diode with its case and window cut away. The anode connection on the right has been accidentally broken by the case cut process.