: a device or object that emits coherent microwave radiation produced by the natural oscillations of atoms or molecules between energy levels
Examples of maser in a Sentence
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The observatory’s central building—a one-story structure housing workshops, desks, racks of processors, and a maser used to distribute clock signals to the telescopes—is completely wrapped in a continuous steel sheet.
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IEEE Spectrum, 28 Nov. 2017
Those applications include satellite technology, masers, microwave photon detection, hunting for axions (a dark matter candidate), and various quantum systems, and driving spin in superconducting qubits for quantum computing, among others.
—Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 27 Dec. 2024
Townes’s work on the maser led to the laser—after a sabbatical in Europe and Japan and a few years researching the ammonia beam and solid-state masers.
—IEEE Spectrum, 28 Jan. 2015
Enlarge Marvel Studios Enlarge / Dr. Charles H. Townes, inventor of the maser, a key component of atomic clocks, illustrates the differences between it and a standard clock.
—Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 3 Nov. 2023
The maser and laser were by no means the sole focus of Townes’s career.
—IEEE Spectrum, 28 Jan. 2015
One source is very long baseline interferometry which picks up radio signals from masers —stars that emit microwaves.
—The Physics Arxiv Blog, Discover Magazine, 28 Apr. 2023
Ye and co include the position of almost 24,000 of these with a similar accuracy to masers.
—The Physics Arxiv Blog, Discover Magazine, 28 Apr. 2023
But few of us have encountered the laser’s cold war–era relative, the maser, which produces concentrated beams of microwaves.
—Fangfei Shen, Discover Magazine, 18 Jan. 2013
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IEEE Spectrum, 28 Nov. 2017
Those applications include satellite technology, masers, microwave photon detection, hunting for axions (a dark matter candidate), and various quantum systems, and driving spin in superconducting qubits for quantum computing, among others.
—Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 27 Dec. 2024
Townes’s work on the maser led to the laser—after a sabbatical in Europe and Japan and a few years researching the ammonia beam and solid-state masers.
—IEEE Spectrum, 28 Jan. 2015
Enlarge Marvel Studios Enlarge / Dr. Charles H. Townes, inventor of the maser, a key component of atomic clocks, illustrates the differences between it and a standard clock.
—Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 3 Nov. 2023
The maser and laser were by no means the sole focus of Townes’s career.
—IEEE Spectrum, 28 Jan. 2015
One source is very long baseline interferometry which picks up radio signals from masers —stars that emit microwaves.
—The Physics Arxiv Blog, Discover Magazine, 28 Apr. 2023
Ye and co include the position of almost 24,000 of these with a similar accuracy to masers.
—The Physics Arxiv Blog, Discover Magazine, 28 Apr. 2023
But few of us have encountered the laser’s cold war–era relative, the maser, which produces concentrated beams of microwaves.
—Fangfei Shen, Discover Magazine, 18 Jan. 2013
Cite this Entry
“Maser.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/maser. Accessed 3 Mar. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
maser
noun
ma·ser
ˈmā-zər 
: a device that uses the natural vibrations of atoms or molecules for generating electromagnetic radiation at a single microwave frequency
Medical Definition
maser
noun
ma·ser
ˈmā-zər
: a device that utilizes the natural oscillations of atoms or molecules between energy levels for generating electromagnetic radiation in the microwave region of the spectrum
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