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An ammonia maser uses an Ammonia molecular beam, maser state selection and a maser cavity to obtain amplification or sustained microwave oscillation. In the 1954 experiment by James Power Gordon, Herbert Jack Zeiger and Charles Hard Townes, a quadrupolar static electric field focused upper-state molecules toward the cavity and deflected lower-state molecules away. The reported $J=K=3$ ammonia inversion transition lies near $23.87\mathrm{GHz}$.^[ref]

Charles H. Townes, James Power Gordon and Herbert Jack Zeiger developed the molecular maser, using stimulated emission to amplify or generate coherent microwaves. Their report treats the same device as an amplifier, oscillator and spectrometer. Preparing the molecular excitation and providing resonant feedback turns microscopic transitions between energy levels into a macroscopic signal. The measured frequency stability and narrow spectroscopic resolution showed why the maser could serve as both an instrument for studying molecules and a frequency reference.^[ref]

A physicist.^[ref]

A physicist who coauthored the ammonia maser work with Herbert Jack Zeiger and Charles Hard Townes. An excited molecular beam transfers energy to a microwave cavity by stimulated emission. The same controlled transition can act as an oscillator, amplifier or spectroscopic reference, showing why a new radiation source could also become a precision measurement tool.^[ref]

The 1955 paper by James Power Gordon, Herbert Jack Zeiger and Charles Hard Townes acknowledged Nikolay Basov and Aleksandr Prokhorov's independent proposal.^[ref] The latter authors' theory paper states that they presented the molecular-generator possibility in May 1952, cites their 1954 publication, and separately cites the Gordon–Zeiger–Townes experimental realization. These are contributions from independent groups.^[ref]