Physics topic timeline

Optics, Light and X-rays Timeline

Records in the Physics collection relating to optics, light, spectra, diffraction, X-rays and laser research.

108 records1669–2023

About this Optics, Light and X-rays timeline

Explore light, optics, spectroscopy, diffraction, X-rays and laser physics through experiments, theories and major discoveries.

This page contains 108 records spanning 1669–2023. Frequently represented countries include United States of America, Great Britain, France, Germany, Sweden. Example event labels include Iceland Spar Experiment, Treatise On Light, Diffraction Theory, Wave Theory of Light, Birth of Nikola Tesla.

Physicists frequently represented in these records

Albert Einstein5 matching records Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman5 matching records Manne Georg Siegbahn4 matching records Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrodinger4 matching records Lene Vestergaard Hau4 matching records Pieter Zeeman3 matching records

Timeline records

Date	Person	Event	Place	Description
1669	Rasmus Bartholin Physician and Scientist	Iceland Spar Experiment	Copenhagen, Denmark	Shows that one crystal can split a light ray into two paths.
1690	Christaan Huygens	Treatise On Light	Netherlands	Publication of "Treatise On Light"
1818	Augustin-Jean Fresnel Physicist	Diffraction Theory	Paris, France	Strengthens the transverse-wave interpretation of light.
1818	Augustin-Jean Fresnel Physicist	Wave Theory of Light	Paris, France	Presents a mathematical wave theory explaining optical diffraction.
1856	Nikola Tesla	Birth of Nikola Tesla	Croatia	Birth of Nikola Tesla, invented fluorescent lighting
1868	Anders Jonas Angstrom Physicist and Astronomer	Solar Spectrum Atlas	Uppsala, Sweden	Publishes a detailed atlas of the solar spectrum.
1881	William Thomson Kelvin Professor	Electric Lighting of University House	Glasgow, Great Britain	Creates one of the first houses in the world to be fully lit by electricity on the university campus.
1888	Johannes Robert Rydberg Physicist	Atomic Spectral Series	Lund, Sweden	Provides a mathematical basis for interpreting hydrogen spectral lines.
1892	Hendrik Antoon Lorentz Physicist	Electron Theory of Matter	Leiden, Netherlands	Develops an electrodynamic theory in which charged microscopic particles account for electrical and optical behaviour in matter.
March 1896	Henri Becquerel Physicist	Radioactivity	Paris, France	Shows uranium radiation can fog photographic plates without sunlight.
1896	Pieter Zeeman Physicist	Zeeman Effect and Charged Oscillators	Leiden, Netherlands	Finds that magnetic fields split spectral lines, providing evidence for charged particles participating in atomic radiation.
1897	Joseph John Thomson Physicist	Cathode-Ray Charge-to-Mass Ratio	Cambridge, Great Britain	Measures the charge-to-mass ratio of cathode-ray particles and shows they are far lighter than atoms.
1897	Emil Wiechert Physicist	Cathode Ray Charge-to-Mass Ratio	Konigsberg, Germany	Measures a very small mass-to-charge ratio for cathode-ray particles, evidence that they are much lighter than atoms.
10 December 1901	Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen Physicist	Nobel Prize in Physics	Stockholm, Germany	Receives the first Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the radiation later called X-rays.
1901	Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen Physicist	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, Germany	Receives the first Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of X-rays, which opened a new method for investigating matter and the human body.
10 December 1902	Pieter Zeeman Physicist	Nobel Prize in Physics	Stockholm, Netherlands	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the effect of magnetism on light spectra.
1902	Philipp Lenard Physicist	Photoelectric Electron Energy	Kiel, Germany	Shows that photoelectron energy depends strongly on light frequency rather than simply on intensity.
1902	Pieter Zeeman Physicist	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, Netherlands	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering that magnetic fields split spectral lines, providing experimental evidence for the interaction between magnetism and light.
17 March 1905	Albert Einstein Physicist	Photoelectric Effect Paper Submitted	Bern, Switzerland	Sends his light-quantum paper to Annalen der Physik, using quanta to explain the photoelectric effect.
1905	Albert Einstein Physicist	Photoelectric Quantum Explanation	Bern, Switzerland	Explains photoelectric emission by proposing that light transfers energy in discrete quanta to electrons.
1906	Albert Einstein Physicist	Light Production and Absorption Paper	Bern, Switzerland	Publishes work extending the light-quantum hypothesis to the production and absorption of radiation.
1907	Albert Abraham Michelson Physicist	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, United States of America	Receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for developing precision optical instruments and for spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with them.
June 1911	Albert Einstein Physicist	Light Deflection	Prague, Switzerland	Predicts that gravity should bend starlight and proposes a solar-eclipse test.
7 August 1912	Victor Franz Hess Physicist	Cosmic Ray Balloon Flight	Aussig, Austria	Measures increasing ionization at high altitude during a balloon flight.
1912	William Lawrence Bragg Physicist	Braggs Law	Cambridge, Great Britain	Formulates the mathematical law governing X-ray diffraction by crystals.
1912	William Lawrence Bragg Physicist	X-Ray Crystal Diffraction	Cambridge, Great Britain	Connects diffraction angles with atomic plane spacing.
1912	Nils Dalen	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, Sweden	Receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for automatic regulators used with gas accumulators in lighthouses and buoys.
1912	Max Theodore Felix von Laue	Discovery of X-Rays	Germany	Discovers interference of x-rays in crystals & is able to measure their wave lengths
1913	Niels Henrik David Bohr Theoretical Physicist	Quantized Electron Orbits	Copenhagen, Denmark	Explains the hydrogen spectrum through quantum transitions between stationary orbits.
1913	William Henry Bragg Sir · Physicist	Crystal Diffraction Research	Leeds, Great Britain	Works with his son to establish practical X-ray crystallography.
1913	William Henry Bragg Sir · Physicist	X-Ray Spectrometer	Leeds, Great Britain	Develops instruments for measuring X-ray diffraction from crystals.
1913	William Lawrence Bragg Physicist	X-Ray Crystallography	Cambridge, Great Britain	Applies X-ray diffraction to reveal a crystal's internal structure.
1913	Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley Physicist	Missing Atomic Numbers Identified	Oxford, Great Britain	Uses X-ray spectra to identify gaps in the sequence of atomic numbers and demonstrates that specific elements remain undiscovered.
1913	Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley Physicist	Moseley Law	Oxford, Great Britain	Establishes a precise relationship between characteristic X-ray frequencies and the nuclear charge associated with each element.
1914	Henry Moseley	Discovery of Atomic Numbers	Great Britain	Studies X-rays emitted by metals. Makes sense of the periodic table by stating elements can only have integral numbers
1915	William Henry Bragg	Nobel Prize	Great Britain	Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, studied crystalline structures using x-rays
1915	Robert Andrews Millikan Physicist	Photoelectric Equation Verification	Chicago, United States of America	Experimentally verifies Einstein's relation between light frequency and the kinetic energy of emitted electrons.
1916	Manne Georg Siegbahn Experimental Physicist	Characteristic X-Ray Measurement	Lund, Sweden	Advances understanding of atomic electron shells through high-resolution spectroscopy.
1916	Manne Georg Siegbahn Experimental Physicist	Precision X-Ray Spectroscopy	Lund, Sweden	Develops improved instruments for precise measurement of X-ray spectra.
1917	Albert Einstein Physicist	Stimulated Emission	Berlin, Germany	Formulates stimulated emission in his quantum theory of radiation, a principle later fundamental to lasers.
1918	Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrodinger Physicist	Colour Vision Research Begins	Vienna, Austria	Begins a substantial programme of research on physiological optics and colour vision that continues into the early 1920s.
1919	Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrodinger Physicist	Colour Theory Publications	Vienna, Austria	Publishes work on colour theory and physiological optics, extending his interests beyond conventional theoretical physics.
1921	Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman Physicist	Scattering of Light	Mediterranean Sea, India	C. V. Raman studies the blue colour of the Mediterranean and intensifies his investigation of light scattering in liquids.
1922	Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman Physicist	Molecular Diffraction	Calcutta, India	C. V. Raman develops his molecular diffraction approach to explain how light is scattered by liquids.
1923	Arthur Holly Compton Physicist	Compton Electron Recoil	St Louis, United States of America	Shows that X-rays scattered by electrons lose energy and momentum as expected from photon-electron collisions.
10 December 1924	Manne Georg Siegbahn Experimental Physicist	Nobel Prize in Physics	Stockholm, Sweden	Receives the physics prize for discoveries in X-ray spectroscopy.
10 December 1924	Manne Georg Siegbahn Experimental Physicist	X-Ray Spectroscopy Recognition	Stockholm, Sweden	Is recognized for highly accurate methods mapping characteristic X-ray spectra.
1924	Satyendra Nath Bose Physicist	Bose Statistics	Dacca, India	Satyendra Nath Bose derives Planck's radiation law using a new statistical treatment of indistinguishable light quanta.
1924	Louis Victor de Broglie Theoretical Physicist	Wave Nature of Electrons	Paris, France	Introduces the wavelength relation later confirmed by electron diffraction.
1924	Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, Sweden	Receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for discoveries and research in X-ray spectroscopy.
1926	August Karolus Physicist	Kerr Cell Light-Speed Measurement	Leipzig, Germany	Uses a Kerr-cell method in Leipzig to obtain a highly accurate measurement of light speed.
1926	August Karolus Professor	Physics Professorship	Leipzig, Germany	Receives a Leipzig professorship and develops high-speed optical and television-related techniques.
1926	Oskar Benjamin Klein Theoretical Physicist	Relativistic Wave Equation	Copenhagen, Sweden	Extends quantum wave mechanics to particles moving near light speed.
1926	Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrodinger Professor	Hydrogen Spectrum Wave Mechanics	Zurich, Austria	Uses the new wave equation to derive the allowed energy levels of the hydrogen atom from an eigenvalue problem rather than prescribed electron orbits.
1927	Arthur Holly Compton Physicist	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, United States of America	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the change in wavelength that occurs when X-rays scatter from electrons, demonstrating the particle-like properties of radiation.
1927	Clinton Joseph Davisson Physicist	Electron Diffraction from Nickel	New York, United States of America	With Lester Germer, observes diffraction of electrons from a nickel crystal and directly confirms the wave character of matter.
1927	Lester Germer Physicist	Electron Diffraction from Nickel	New York, United States of America	With Clinton Davisson, observes electron diffraction from a nickel crystal and confirms matter-wave behaviour.
1927	Alexander Reid Physicist	Electron Diffraction Through Foils	Aberdeen, Great Britain	Works with George Paget Thomson on electron diffraction through thin metal foils.
1927	George Paget Thomson Physicist	Electron Diffraction Through Metal Foils	Aberdeen, Great Britain	Independently demonstrates electron diffraction by transmitting fast electrons through thin metal foils.
28 February 1928	Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman Physicist	Raman Effect	Calcutta, India	C. V. Raman and his collaborators observe the inelastic scattering of light now known as the Raman effect.
1930	Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman Physicist	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, India	Receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for work on the scattering of light and for discovering the optical effect now known as the Raman effect.
1930	Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman Physicist	Nobel Prize in Physics	Stockholm, India	C. V. Raman receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on light scattering and the discovery of the Raman effect.
1932	James Chadwick Physicist	Neutron Mass Estimate	Cambridge, Great Britain	Uses recoil measurements from several light elements to estimate the mass of the newly identified neutron.
1934	Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov Physicist	Cherenkov Radiation	Moscow, Russia	Observes blue light emitted when charged particles move rapidly through a medium.
1935	Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrodinger Theoretical Physicist	Quantum Superposition Thought Experiment	Oxford, Austria	Highlights the tension between microscopic superposition and everyday observation.
1936	Walter Elsasser Physicist	Neutron Diffraction Prediction	Paris, Germany	Publishes the theoretical prediction that thermal neutrons should show crystal diffraction.
1936	Dana P. Mitchell Physicist	Neutron Bragg Reflection	United States of America, United States of America	With Philip Powers, independently demonstrates crystal diffraction of neutrons using magnesium oxide.
1936	Peter Preiswerk Physicist	Neutron Diffraction Demonstration	Paris, Switzerland	With Hans von Halban, experimentally demonstrates neutron diffraction using moderated neutrons and crystals.
December 1937	Clinton Joseph Davisson Physicist	Nobel Prize for Electron Diffraction	Stockholm, United States of America	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering electron diffraction from crystals.
December 1937	George Paget Thomson Physicist	Nobel Prize for Electron Diffraction	Stockholm, Great Britain	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for experimental discovery of electron diffraction by crystals.
1937	Luis Walter Alvarez Physicist	Nuclear K-Electron Capture Observed	Berkeley, United States of America	Provides the first experimental demonstration of nuclear K-electron capture by detecting characteristic X-rays following the capture of an orbital electron.
3 November 1942	Glenn Theodore Seaborg	Plutonium Neutron Impurity Warning	Chicago, United States of America	Seaborg warns that plutonium's alpha activity can make light-element impurities a serious unwanted neutron source.
24 May 1944	Geoffrey Ingram Taylor	Implosion Instability Analysis	Los Alamos, Great Britain	Taylor joins Los Alamos and highlights hydrodynamic instability problems that influence the move toward a more conservative implosion design.
December 1944	Lyle Borst Physicist	Neutron Diffraction Measurements	Oak Ridge, United States of America	Works with Ernest Wollan on early reactor-based neutron diffraction measurements.
December 1944	Ernest Wollan Physicist	First Neutron Powder Diffraction	Oak Ridge, United States of America	Obtains early neutron powder diffraction measurements using the X-10 Graphite Reactor.
1944	Ernest Wollan Physicist	Neutron Diffraction Proposal	Oak Ridge, United States of America	Proposes using reactor neutrons and a modified diffraction instrument to study crystal structure.
1944	Walter Zinn Physicist	Chicago Reactor Neutron Diffraction	Chicago, Canada	Observes neutron diffraction using reactor neutrons during early Manhattan Project scattering experiments.
June 1946	Clifford Shull Physicist	Joins Oak Ridge Neutron Program	Oak Ridge, United States of America	Joins Ernest Wollan at Oak Ridge to develop neutron diffraction into a quantitative research technique.
1950	Alfred Kastler Physicist	Atomic Energy-Level Control	Paris, France	Creates a method enabling precise spectroscopy and later laser development.
1950	Alfred Kastler Physicist	Optical Pumping	Paris, France	Proposes using light to redistribute atoms among quantum energy states.
1951	Clifford Shull Physicist	Antiferromagnetic Neutron Diffraction	Oak Ridge, United States of America	Uses neutron diffraction to reveal magnetic ordering in manganese oxide and confirm antiferromagnetism.
1954	Gopalasamudram Narayanan Ramachandran Biophysicist	Collagen Structure	Madras, India	G. N. Ramachandran and collaborators propose a triple-helical structural model for collagen using X-ray diffraction constraints.
1962	Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan Physicist	Faster-than-light Particles	United States, India	E. C. G. Sudarshan and collaborators publish a theoretical analysis showing how hypothetical faster-than-light particles can fit within special relativity.
1963	Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan Physicist	Optical Equivalence Theorem	Rochester, India	E. C. G. Sudarshan develops the diagonal coherent-state representation and optical equivalence theorem foundational to quantum optics.
10 December 1964	Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov Physicist	Maser and Laser Research	Stockholm, Russia	The achievement marks maser and laser research as an important Russian scientific milestone.
10 December 1964	Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov Physicist	Nobel Prize in Physics	Stockholm, Russia	Shares the Nobel Prize for research leading to masers and lasers.
1964	Nikolai Gennadevich Basov	Nobel Prize	Russia	Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, for research in lasers
1964	Alexander Prokhorov	Invention of Maser	Moscow, Russia	Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, created the maser, a microwave laser
1964	Alexander Prokhorov	Nobel Prize	Moscow, Russia	Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, created the maser, a microwave laser
December 1986	Ernst August Friedrich Ruska Physicist	Nobel Prize for Electron Optics	Stockholm, Germany	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for fundamental work in electron optics and the electron microscope.
1987	Anne LHuillier Physicist	Attosecond Light Foundations	Saclay, France	Establishes a foundation for generating attosecond light pulses.
1987	Anne LHuillier Physicist	High-Harmonic Generation Plateau	Saclay, France	Observes unexpectedly high harmonics produced by intense laser pulses in gas.
December 1994	Clifford Shull Physicist	Nobel Prize for Neutron Diffraction	Stockholm, United States of America	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for developing the neutron diffraction technique.
1997	Rainer Weiss Physicist	LIGO	Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States of America	Weiss helps shape the laser interferometer design that becomes central to LIGO
1999	Lene Vestergaard Hau Physicist	Light Reduced to Bicycle Speed	Cambridge Massachusetts, Denmark	Reduces a light pulse to speeds comparable with ordinary transport.
1999	Lene Vestergaard Hau Physicist	Slow Light Experiment	Cambridge Massachusetts, Denmark	Leads an experiment slowing light dramatically in an ultracold atomic gas.
2001	Lene Vestergaard Hau Physicist	Stopped Light	Cambridge Massachusetts, Denmark	Stops a light pulse temporarily inside an atomic medium.
2001	Lene Vestergaard Hau Physicist	Stored Optical Information	Cambridge Massachusetts, Denmark	Stores and later retrieves optical information using coherent atomic states.
2014	Isamu Akasaki	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, Japan	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing efficient blue light-emitting diodes, enabling bright energy-saving white light sources.
2014	Hiroshi Amano	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, Japan	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing efficient blue light-emitting diodes, enabling bright energy-saving white light sources.
2018	Arthur Ashkin	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, United States of America	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for optical tweezers and their application to biological systems.
2018	Gérard Mourou	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, France	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for a method of generating high-intensity, ultrashort optical pulses.
2018	Donna Strickland	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, Canada	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for a method of generating high-intensity, ultrashort optical pulses.
10 December 2023	Pierre Agostini Physicist	Nobel Prize in Physics	Stockholm, France	Shares the physics prize for methods producing attosecond light pulses to study electron dynamics.
10 December 2023	Ferenc Krausz Physicist	Nobel Prize in Physics	Stockholm, Hungary	Shares the physics prize for methods producing attosecond light pulses to study electron dynamics.
10 December 2023	Anne LHuillier Physicist	Nobel Prize in Physics	Stockholm, France	Shares the physics prize for methods producing attosecond light pulses to study electron dynamics.
2023	Pierre Agostini Physicist	Attosecond Electron Dynamics	Columbus, France	Develops attosecond light-pulse methods that allow electron motion and energy changes in matter to be tracked on their natural time scale.
2023	John Tisch Physicist	Attosecond Electron Dynamics Experiments	London, Great Britain	Uses ultrafast light techniques to investigate electron motion on attosecond time scales.

Optics, Light and X-rays Timeline

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