Early Demonstrations
The term "quantum well laser" was coined in the late 1970s by Nick Holonyak and his students at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. They demonstrated the first quantum well laser in 1977. W.T. Tsang at Bell Laboratories in the late 1970s and early 1980s showed the promise of quantum well lasers by demonstrating that when the quantum well parameters are optimized, they have exceedingly low threshold current and very high efficiency in converting current-in to light-out, making them ideal for widespread use.
The story of the origin of the quantum well concept, its experimental verification, and the invention of the quantum well laser is told by Henry in more detail in the Foreword to "Quantum Well Lasers," ed. by Peter S. Zory, Jr.
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