From Mary Bellis,
Your Guide to Inventors.
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In 1962, Robert Hall invented the semiconductor injection laser while working for General Electric laboratories in Schenectady, New York. Semiconductor lasers were small and inexpensive, and are now the most common type of laser. This type of laser is found in all compact disk players and laser printers, laser pointers, supermarket bar-code readers, and most optical fiber communications systems.

Robert Hall also invented an improved magnetron that operates in most microwave ovens. His magnetron was developed during WW2 and was originally used to jam radar signals via a generated continuous wave magnetrons.

Robert Hall also invented improved power rectifiers. Hall's power rectifiers are used in electric locomotives and high-voltage DC electrical transmission devices. During the 1970s, energy crisis Hall worked on photovoltaics and solar cells.

Robert Hall - Biography

Born in in 1919, in New Haven, Connecticut, Robert Hall earned a B.S. in Physics at CalTech in 1942 and a Ph.D. in physics at CalTech in 1948. He worked at the General Electric Research and Development Center in Schenectady, New York.

Robert Hall has been issued 43 US patents.