The first laser in the world was the ruby laser, which was first developed by American Hughes Aircraft Company scientist Mayman in 1960. The US military soon carried out research on military laser devices on this basis. In 1961, the first military laser rangefinder passed the demonstration test of the United States military, and the laser rangefinder soon entered the practical stage.

Laser is a new technology developed in the 1960s. It is a kind of light with pure color, highly concentrated energy and good directionality. Laser rangefinder is an instrument that uses laser to measure distance. Its working principle is simple: measure the distance by measuring the time from the beginning of the laser emission to the laser reflection from the target. For example, to measure the distance of the moon with a laser rangefinder, if the time from the beginning of the laser launch to the reflection from the moon is measured as 2.56 seconds, the one-way time from the laser launch to the moon is equal to 1.28 seconds, and the speed of the laser is the speed of light, equal to 300000 kilometers per second. Therefore, the measured distance from the moon to the earth is the product of one-way time and the speed of light, which is 384000 kilometers. In order to transmit and receive laser and time, the laser rangefinder is composed of laser transmitter, receiver, clock frequency oscillator and distance counter.