The Atomic Spectroscopy Laboratory was created as part of the Department of Optics and Spectroscopy when the Institute of Solid State Physics was formed in 1972. The main topic was the investigation of processes in low temperature plasma of hollow cathode discharge. In 1985 the Laboratory of Atomic Spectroscopy became a separate unit of the Institute. In 1987 out of the Laboratory of Atomic Spectroscopy, a new Laboratory of Metal Vapor Lasers was established.