Department of Laser Spectroscopy (DLS) was organized in 1970 by Prof. V.S. Letokhov. First years it consisted of two laboratories with joint research program, Laser Spectroscopy Laboratory (Prof. V.S. Letokhov until 2002 and Prof. V.I. Balykin now) and Laboratory of Spectroscopy of Excited States (Dr. R.V. Ambartzumian, later Dr. E.A. Ryabov). Main body of the Laboratory formed young scientists invited from the Department of Quantum Radiophysics of Lebedev Physical Institute and undergraduate and graduate students from Moscow Physics and Technology Institute. The scientific research program of the Department was developed on the basis of original ideas on new methods of laser spectroscopy and on selective action of laser irradiation on the matter which passed ahead of analogue ideas as well as research abroad. That predetermined to a large extent the success of the research program, though the level of instruments at the Institute was noticeably lower than abroad. Later the Laboratory of Picosecond Spectroscopy (Dr. P.G. Kryukov, later Dr. Yu.A. Matveets and Dr. S.V. Chekalin now) was set up, and it successfully broadened  the range of research projects and allowed to establish a complete laser spectroscopy department which numbered 50 researchers by 1985. Nowadays the Department is a united team of closely associated with each other researchers and engineers who has same goals.
        In the period of  perestroika  and difficulties in getting financial support from the Russian Academy of Sciences, the department concentrated on the most pressing problems, the number of research workers being cut down to 22 in 2002. An additional financing was received in the form of grants from the Russian Basic Research Foundation and under scientific-technical programs of the Ministry of Science and joint projects with foreign organizations.