Teaching LASER

LASER is a curious combination of fundamental physics and sophisticated technology. With fibre optics it is one of the most important engineering developments of the twentieth century. As such it has generated its share of popular awe and wonder as well as deep scientific interest. In this paper an attempt is made to develop the concept of an open laser knowledge spiral fuelled by motivations to understand, in everyday terms, the purification of light that a laser is. The spiral would then climb traversing areas of elementary understanding of mechanism of production of light, appreciation of distinctive nature of a laser, myriads of day-to-day applications, understanding of the laser pulse as a photon wave-packet, relevance of laser in modern control-of-atom based technologies and more advanced understanding of laser. The claim is that such an approach would make bringing together modules addressing different aspects of laser in a large number of ways suited to specific needs of any student.