Laser

“Laser light” redirects here. For the song, see LaserLight. temporal coherence, which allows them to emit light with
For laser light show, see laser lighting display. For other a very narrow spectrum, i.e., they can emit a single color
uses, see Laser (disambiguation). of light. Temporal coherence can be used to produce
pulses of light as short as a femtosecond.
Among their many applications, lasers are used in
optical disk drives, laser printers, and barcode scanners;
fiber-optic and free-space optical communication; laser
surgery and skin treatments; cutting and welding mate-
rials; military and law enforcement devices for marking
targets and measuring range and speed; and laser lighting
displays in entertainment.

United States Air Force laser experiment

1 Fundamentals

Lasers are distinguished from other light sources by

their coherence. Spatial coherence is typically expressed
through the output being a narrow beam, which is
diffraction-limited. Laser beams can be focused to very
tiny spots, achieving a very high irradiance, or they can
have very low divergence in order to concentrate their
power at a great distance.
Temporal (or longitudinal) coherence implies a polarized
wave at a single frequency whose phase is correlated over
a relatively great distance (the coherence length) along the
beam.[3] A beam produced by a thermal or other incoher-
ent light source has an instantaneous amplitude and phase
that vary randomly with respect to time and position, thus
Red (660 & 635 nm), green (532 & 520 nm) and blue-violet
(445 & 405 nm) lasers having a short coherence length.
Lasers are characterized according to their wavelength in
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of a vacuum. Most “single wavelength” lasers actually pro-
optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of duce radiation in several modes having slightly differing
electromagnetic radiation. The term “laser” originated frequencies (wavelengths), often not in a single polariza-
as an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated tion. Although temporal coherence implies monochro-
emission of radiation".[1][2] The first laser was built in maticity, there are lasers that emit a broad spectrum of
1960 by Theodore H. Maiman at Hughes Laboratories, light or emit different wavelengths of light simultane-
based on theoretical work by Charles Hard Townes and ously. There are some lasers that are not single spa-
Arthur Leonard Schawlow. A laser differs from other tial mode and consequently have light beams that diverge
sources of light in that it emits light coherently. Spatial more than is required by the diffraction limit. How-
coherence allows a laser to be focused to a tight spot, en- ever, all such devices are classified as “lasers” based on
abling applications such as laser cutting and lithography. their method of producing light, i.e., stimulated emission.
Spatial coherence also allows a laser beam to stay nar- Lasers are employed in applications where light of the
row over great distances (collimation), enabling applica- required spatial or temporal coherence could not be pro-
tions such as laser pointers. Lasers can also have high duced using simpler technologies.

1
2 2 DESIGN

2
3
4

Components of a typical laser:

Laser beams in fog, reflected on a car windshield 1. Gain medium
2. Laser pumping energy
3. High reflector
1.1 Terminology 4. Output coupler
5. Laser beam
The word laser started as an acronym for “light amplifi-
cation by stimulated emission of radiation”. In modern
usage, the term “light” includes electromagnetic radia-
tion of any frequency, not only visible light, hence the
terms infrared laser, ultraviolet laser, X-ray laser, and
so on. Because the microwave predecessor of the laser,
the maser, was developed first, devices of this sort op-
erating at microwave and radio frequencies are referred
to as “masers” rather than “microwave lasers” or “radio
lasers”. In the early technical literature, especially at Bell
Telephone Laboratories, the laser was called an optical
maser; this term is now obsolete.[4]
A laser that produces light by itself is technically an op-
Animation explaining the stimulated emission and the laser prin-
tical oscillator rather than an optical amplifier as sug- ciple
gested by the acronym. It has been humorously noted that
the acronym LOSER, for “light oscillation by stimulated
emission of radiation”, would have been more correct.[5]
With the widespread use of the original acronym as a specific wavelength that passes through the gain medium
common noun, optical amplifiers have come to be re- is amplified (increases in power).
ferred to as “laser amplifiers”, notwithstanding the appar-
For the gain medium to amplify light, it needs to be sup-
ent redundancy in that designation.
plied with energy in a process called pumping. The en-
The back-formed verb to lase is frequently used in the ergy is typically supplied as an electric current or as light
field, meaning “to produce laser light,”[6] especially in at a different wavelength. Pump light may be provided
reference to the gain medium of a laser; when a laser by a flash lamp or by another laser.
is operating it is said to be “lasing.” Further use of the
The most common type of laser uses feedback from an
words laser and maser in an extended sense, not referring
optical cavity—a pair of mirrors on either end of the
to laser technology or devices, can be seen in usages such
gain medium. Light bounces back and forth between the
as astrophysical maser and atom laser.
mirrors, passing through the gain medium and being am-
plified each time. Typically one of the two mirrors, the
output coupler, is partially transparent. Some of the light
2 Design escapes through this mirror. Depending on the design of
the cavity (whether the mirrors are flat or curved), the
Main article: Laser construction light coming out of the laser may spread out or form a
narrow beam. In analogy to electronic oscillators, this
A laser consists of a gain medium, a mechanism to ener- device is sometimes called a laser oscillator.
gize it, and something to provide optical feedback.[7] The Most practical lasers contain additional elements that af-
gain medium is a material with properties that allow it to fect properties of the emitted light, such as the polariza-
amplify light by way of stimulated emission. Light of a tion, wavelength, and shape of the beam.
3.2 Gain medium and cavity 3

3 Laser physics dipole, and this dipole oscillates at a characteristic fre-

quency. In response to the external electric field at this
See also: Laser science frequency, the probability of the atom entering this tran-
sition state is greatly increased. Thus, the rate of tran-
sitions between two stationary states is enhanced beyond
Electrons and how they interact with electromagnetic that due to spontaneous emission. Such a transition to the
fields are important in our understanding of chemistry higher state is called absorption, and it destroys an inci-
and physics. dent photon (the photon’s energy goes into powering the
increased energy of the higher state). A transition from
the higher to a lower energy state, however, produces an
3.1 Stimulated emission additional photon; this is the process of stimulated emis-
sion.
Main article: Stimulated emission

In the classical view, the energy of an electron orbiting an 3.2 Gain medium and cavity
atomic nucleus is larger for orbits further from the nucleus
of an atom. However, quantum mechanical effects force
electrons to take on discrete positions in orbitals. Thus,
electrons are found in specific energy levels of an atom,
two of which are shown below:
Before During After
emission emission emission
Excited level

Incident photon

Ground level
Atom in Atom in
excited state ground state

When an electron absorbs energy either from light

(photons) or heat (phonons), it receives that incident
quantum of energy. But transitions are only allowed in A helium–neon laser demonstration at the Kastler-Brossel Labo-
between discrete energy levels such as the two shown ratory at Univ. Paris 6. The pink-orange glow running through
above. This leads to emission lines and absorption lines. the center of the tube is from the electric discharge which pro-
duces incoherent light, just as in a neon tube. This glowing
When an electron is excited from a lower to a higher en-
plasma is excited and then acts as the gain medium through which
ergy level, it will not stay that way forever. An electron in the internal beam passes, as it is reflected between the two mir-
an excited state may decay to a lower energy state which rors. Laser radiation output through the front mirror can be seen
is not occupied, according to a particular time constant to produce a tiny (about 1 mm in diameter) intense spot on the
characterizing that transition. When such an electron de- screen, to the right. Although it is a deep and pure red color,
cays without external influence, emitting a photon, that spots of laser light are so intense that cameras are typically over-
is called "spontaneous emission". The phase associated exposed and distort their color.
with the photon that is emitted is random. A material
with many atoms in such an excited state may thus re- The gain medium is excited by an external source of en-
sult in radiation which is very spectrally limited (centered ergy into an excited state. In most lasers this medium
around one wavelength of light), but the individual pho- consists of a population of atoms which have been excited
tons would have no common phase relationship and would into such a state by means of an outside light source, or an
emanate in random directions. This is the mechanism of electrical field which supplies energy for atoms to absorb
fluorescence and thermal emission. and be transformed into their excited states.
An external electromagnetic field at a frequency associ- The gain medium of a laser is normally a material of
ated with a transition can affect the quantum mechanical controlled purity, size, concentration, and shape, which
state of the atom. As the electron in the atom makes a amplifies the beam by the process of stimulated emis-
transition between two stationary states (neither of which sion described above. This material can be of any state:
shows a dipole field), it enters a transition state which does gas, liquid, solid, or plasma. The gain medium absorbs
have a dipole field, and which acts like a small electric pump energy, which raises some electrons into higher-
4 3 LASER PHYSICS

4000
632.8 nm cavity; this equilibrium determines the operating point of
3500
the laser. If the applied pump power is too small, the
3000 gain will never be sufficient to overcome the resonator
2500
losses, and laser light will not be produced. The mini-
mum pump power needed to begin laser action is called
Intensity (counts)

2000
the lasing threshold. The gain medium will amplify any
1500
photons passing through it, regardless of direction; but
1000 only the photons in a spatial mode supported by the res-
500
onator will pass more than once through the medium and
receive substantial amplification.
0
300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
Wavelength (nanometers)

Spectrum of a helium neon laser illustrating its very high spec-

tral purity (limited by the measuring apparatus). The 0.002 nm
bandwidth of the lasing medium is well over 10,000 times nar-
rower than the spectral width of a light-emitting diode (whose
spectrum is shown here for comparison), with the bandwidth of 3.3 The light emitted
a single longitudinal mode being much narrower still.

The light generated by stimulated emission is very simi-

lar to the input signal in terms of wavelength, phase, and
energy ("excited") quantum states. Particles can inter- polarization. This gives laser light its characteristic co-
act with light by either absorbing or emitting photons. herence, and allows it to maintain the uniform polariza-
Emission can be spontaneous or stimulated. In the latter tion and often monochromaticity established by the opti-
case, the photon is emitted in the same direction as the cal cavity design.
light that is passing by. When the number of particles in
one excited state exceeds the number of particles in some The beam in the cavity and the output beam of the laser,
lower-energy state, population inversion is achieved and when travelling in free space (or a homogeneous medium)
the amount of stimulated emission due to light that passes rather than waveguides (as in an optical fiber laser), can
through is larger than the amount of absorption. Hence, be approximated as a Gaussian beam in most lasers; such
the light is amplified. By itself, this makes an optical am- beams exhibit the minimum divergence for a given di-
plifier. When an optical amplifier is placed inside a reso- ameter. However some high power lasers may be mul-
nant optical cavity, one obtains a laser oscillator.[8] timode, with the transverse modes often approximated
using Hermite–Gaussian or Laguerre-Gaussian functions.
In a few situations it is possible to obtain lasing with only
It has been shown that unstable laser resonators (not used
a single pass of EM radiation through the gain medium, in most lasers) produce fractal shaped beams.[10] Near the
and this produces a laser beam without any need for a
beam “waist” (or focal region) it is highly collimated: the
resonant or reflective cavity (see for example nitrogen wavefronts are planar, normal to the direction of prop-
laser).[9] Thus, reflection in a resonant cavity is usually agation, with no beam divergence at that point. How-
required for a laser, but is not absolutely necessary. ever, due to diffraction, that can only remain true well
The optical resonator is sometimes referred to as an “op- within the Rayleigh range. The beam of a single trans-
tical cavity”, but this is a misnomer: lasers use open res- verse mode (gaussian beam) laser eventually diverges at
onators as opposed to the literal cavity that would be em- an angle which varies inversely with the beam diameter,
ployed at microwave frequencies in a maser. The res- as required by diffraction theory. Thus, the “pencil beam”
onator typically consists of two mirrors between which directly generated by a common helium–neon laser would
a coherent beam of light travels in both directions, re- spread out to a size of perhaps 500 kilometers when shone
flecting back on itself so that an average photon will pass on the Moon (from the distance of the earth). On the
through the gain medium repeatedly before it is emitted other hand, the light from a semiconductor laser typically
from the output aperture or lost to diffraction or absorp- exits the tiny crystal with a large divergence: up to 50°.
tion. If the gain (amplification) in the medium is larger However even such a divergent beam can be transformed
than the resonator losses, then the power of the recircu- into a similarly collimated beam by means of a lens sys-
lating light can rise exponentially. But each stimulated tem, as is always included, for instance, in a laser pointer
emission event returns an atom from its excited state to whose light originates from a laser diode. That is possi-
the ground state, reducing the gain of the medium. With ble due to the light being of a single spatial mode. This
increasing beam power the net gain (gain minus loss) re- unique property of laser light, spatial coherence, cannot
duces to unity and the gain medium is said to be satu- be replicated using standard light sources (except by dis-
rated. In a continuous wave (CW) laser, the balance of carding most of the light) as can be appreciated by com-
pump power against gain saturation and cavity losses pro- paring the beam from a flashlight (torch) or spotlight to
duces an equilibrium value of the laser power inside the that of almost any laser.
4.1 Continuous wave operation 5

3.4 Quantum vs. classical emission pro-

cesses
The mechanism of producing radiation in a laser relies
on stimulated emission, where energy is extracted from
a transition in an atom or molecule. This is a quantum
phenomenon discovered by Einstein who derived the re-
lationship between the A coefficient describing sponta-
neous emission and the B coefficient which applies to ab-
sorption and stimulated emission. However, in the case
of the free electron laser, atomic energy levels are not in-
volved; it appears that the operation of this rather exotic
device can be explained without reference to quantum
mechanics.

4 Continuous and pulsed modes of

operation

Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) of the MESSENGER spacecraft

stored in the lasing medium or pumping mechanism, then

it is still classified as a “modulated” or “pulsed” continu-
ous wave laser. Most laser diodes used in communication
systems fall in that category.
Lidar measurements of lunar topography made by Clementine
mission.

4.1 Continuous wave operation

Some applications of lasers depend on a beam whose out-

put power is constant over time. Such a laser is known
as continuous wave (CW). Many types of lasers can be
made to operate in continuous wave mode to satisfy such
an application. Many of these lasers actually lase in sev-
eral longitudinal modes at the same time, and beats be-
tween the slightly different optical frequencies of those
oscillations will in fact produce amplitude variations on
time scales shorter than the round-trip time (the recipro-
cal of the frequency spacing between modes), typically a
few nanoseconds or less. In most cases these lasers are
still termed “continuous wave” as their output power is
steady when averaged over any longer time periods, with
Laserlink the very high frequency power variations having little or
A laser can be classified as operating in either continuous no impact in the intended application. (However the term
or pulsed mode, depending on whether the power output is not applied to mode-locked lasers, where the intention
is essentially continuous over time or whether its output is to create very short pulses at the rate of the round-trip
takes the form of pulses of light on one or another time time).
scale. Of course even a laser whose output is normally For continuous wave operation it is required for the pop-
continuous can be intentionally turned on and off at some ulation inversion of the gain medium to be continually re-
rate in order to create pulses of light. When the modu- plenished by a steady pump source. In some lasing media
lation rate is on time scales much slower than the cavity this is impossible. In some other lasers it would require
lifetime and the time period over which energy can be pumping the laser at a very high continuous power level
6 5 HISTORY

which would be impractical or destroy the laser by pro- 4.2.2 Mode-locking

ducing excessive heat. Such lasers cannot be run in CW
mode. Main article: Mode-locking

A mode-locked laser is capable of emitting extremely

4.2 Pulsed operation short pulses on the order of tens of picoseconds down to
less than 10 femtoseconds. These pulses will repeat at
Pulsed operation of lasers refers to any laser not classi- the round trip time, that is, the time that it takes light to
fied as continuous wave, so that the optical power appears complete one round trip between the mirrors comprising
in pulses of some duration at some repetition rate. This the resonator. Due to the Fourier limit (also known as
encompasses a wide range of technologies addressing a energy-time uncertainty), a pulse of such short temporal
number of different motivations. Some lasers are pulsed length has a spectrum spread over a considerable band-
simply because they cannot be run in continuous mode. width. Thus such a gain medium must have a gain band-
In other cases the application requires the production of width sufficiently broad to amplify those frequencies. An
pulses having as large an energy as possible. Since the example of a suitable material is titanium-doped, artifi-
pulse energy is equal to the average power divided by the cially grown sapphire (Ti:sapphire) which has a very wide
repetition rate, this goal can sometimes be satisfied by gain bandwidth and can thus produce pulses of only a few
lowering the rate of pulses so that more energy can be femtoseconds duration.
built up in between pulses. In laser ablation for exam- Such mode-locked lasers are a most versatile tool for
ple, a small volume of material at the surface of a work researching processes occurring on extremely short time
piece can be evaporated if it is heated in a very short time, scales (known as femtosecond physics, femtosecond
whereas supplying the energy gradually would allow for chemistry and ultrafast science), for maximizing the
the heat to be absorbed into the bulk of the piece, never effect of nonlinearity in optical materials (e.g. in second-
attaining a sufficiently high temperature at a particular harmonic generation, parametric down-conversion,
point. optical parametric oscillators and the like) due to the
Other applications rely on the peak pulse power (rather large peak power, and in ablation applications. Again,
than the energy in the pulse), especially in order to obtain because of the extremely short pulse duration, such a
nonlinear optical effects. For a given pulse energy, this laser will produce pulses which achieve an extremely
requires creating pulses of the shortest possible duration high peak power.
utilizing techniques such as Q-switching.
The optical bandwidth of a pulse cannot be narrower than 4.2.3 Pulsed pumping
the reciprocal of the pulse width. In the case of extremely
short pulses, that implies lasing over a considerable band- Another method of achieving pulsed laser operation is to
width, quite contrary to the very narrow bandwidths typ- pump the laser material with a source that is itself pulsed,
ical of CW lasers. The lasing medium in some dye lasers either through electronic charging in the case of flash
and vibronic solid-state lasers produces optical gain over a lamps, or another laser which is already pulsed. Pulsed
wide bandwidth, making a laser possible which can thus pumping was historically used with dye lasers where the
generate pulses of light as short as a few femtoseconds inverted population lifetime of a dye molecule was so
(10−15 s). short that a high energy, fast pump was needed. The
way to overcome this problem was to charge up large
capacitors which are then switched to discharge through
4.2.1 Q-switching
flashlamps, producing an intense flash. Pulsed pumping
is also required for three-level lasers in which the lower
Main article: Q-switching
energy level rapidly becomes highly populated preventing
further lasing until those atoms relax to the ground state.
In a Q-switched laser, the population inversion is allowed These lasers, such as the excimer laser and the copper
to build up by introducing loss inside the resonator which vapor laser, can never be operated in CW mode.
exceeds the gain of the medium; this can also be de-
scribed as a reduction of the quality factor or 'Q' of the
cavity. Then, after the pump energy stored in the laser
medium has approached the maximum possible level, the
5 History
introduced loss mechanism (often an electro- or acousto-
optical element) is rapidly removed (or that occurs by it- 5.1 Foundations
self in a passive device), allowing lasing to begin which
rapidly obtains the stored energy in the gain medium. In 1917, Albert Einstein established the theoretical foun-
This results in a short pulse incorporating that energy, and dations for the laser and the maser in the paper Zur
thus a high peak power. Quantentheorie der Strahlung (On the Quantum Theory
5.3 Laser 7

of Radiation) via a re-derivation of Max Planck's law could release stimulated emissions between an excited
of radiation, conceptually based upon probability coef- state and a lower excited state, not the ground state, fa-
ficients (Einstein coefficients) for the absorption, sponta- cilitating the maintenance of a population inversion. In
neous emission, and stimulated emission of electromag- 1955, Prokhorov and Basov suggested optical pumping
netic radiation. In 1928, Rudolf W. Ladenburg con- of a multi-level system as a method for obtaining the pop-
firmed the existence of the phenomena of stimulated ulation inversion, later a main method of laser pumping.
emission and negative absorption.[11] In 1939, Valentin Townes reports that several eminent physicists—among
A. Fabrikant predicted the use of stimulated emission to them Niels Bohr, John von Neumann, Isidor Rabi,
amplify “short” waves.[12] In 1947, Willis E. Lamb and
Polykarp Kusch, and Llewellyn Thomas—argued the
R. C. Retherford found apparent stimulated emission in maser violated Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and
hydrogen spectra and effected the first demonstration of
hence could not work.[14] In 1964 Charles H. Townes,
stimulated emission.[11] In 1950, Alfred Kastler (Nobel Nikolay Basov, and Aleksandr Prokhorov shared the
Prize for Physics 1966) proposed the method of optical
Nobel Prize in Physics, “for fundamental work in the field
pumping, experimentally confirmed, two years later, by of quantum electronics, which has led to the construc-
Brossel, Kastler, and Winter.[13] tion of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser–laser
principle”.
5.2 Maser
5.3 Laser
Main article: Maser
In 1953, Charles Hard Townes and graduate students
In 1957, Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard
Schawlow, then at Bell Labs, began a serious study of
the infrared laser. As ideas developed, they abandoned
infrared radiation to instead concentrate upon visible
light. The concept originally was called an “optical
maser”. In 1958, Bell Labs filed a patent application for
their proposed optical maser; and Schawlow and Townes
submitted a manuscript of their theoretical calculations to
the Physical Review, published that year in Volume 112,
Issue No. 6.

Aleksandr Prokhorov

James P. Gordon and Herbert J. Zeiger produced the first

microwave amplifier, a device operating on similar prin-
ciples to the laser, but amplifying microwave radiation
rather than infrared or visible radiation. Townes’s maser
was incapable of continuous output. Meanwhile, in the
Soviet Union, Nikolay Basov and Aleksandr Prokhorov
were independently working on the quantum oscillator LASER notebook: First page of the notebook wherein Gordon
and solved the problem of continuous-output systems by Gould coined the LASER acronym, and described the elements
using more than two energy levels. These gain media for constructing the device.
8 5 HISTORY

Simultaneously, at Columbia University, graduate student with a visible emission. This first semiconductor laser
Gordon Gould was working on a doctoral thesis about could only be used in pulsed-beam operation, and when
the energy levels of excited thallium. When Gould and cooled to liquid nitrogen temperatures (77 K). In 1970,
Townes met, they spoke of radiation emission, as a gen- Zhores Alferov, in the USSR, and Izuo Hayashi and Mor-
eral subject; afterwards, in November 1957, Gould noted ton Panish of Bell Telephone Laboratories also indepen-
his ideas for a “laser”, including using an open resonator dently developed room-temperature, continual-operation
(later an essential laser-device component). Moreover, in diode lasers, using the heterojunction structure.
1958, Prokhorov independently proposed using an open
resonator, the first published appearance (the USSR) of
this idea. Elsewhere, in the U.S., Schawlow and Townes 5.4 Recent innovations
had agreed to an open-resonator laser design – apparently
unaware of Prokhorov’s publications and Gould’s unpub-
lished laser work.
Nonlinear QED: E•e•λ c =2m0c²
At a conference in 1959, Gordon Gould published the 29
30
10 Electroweak
10 Zettawatt Laser Δν: gain bandwidth
term LASER in the paper The LASER, Light Amplifica- σ: transition cross-section Era
Quark Era

tion by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.[1][5] Gould’s lin- 25

10 Laser Intensity Limit: hν³ Δν Pth
I = c² • σ g = λ² 24
(per cm² of laser medium) 10

Focused Intensity (W/cm²)

guistic intention was using the "-aser” word particle as Positron-
Relativistic Optics: Electron Era
a suffix – to accurately denote the spectrum of the light 20
10
vosc ~c
(large ponderomotive pressures)

18

emitted by the LASER device; thus x-rays: xaser, ultravi- e²

Bound Electrons: E = a0
10
Plasma Era
olet: uvaser, et cetera; none established itself as a discrete 15
10
term, although “raser” was briefly popular for denoting mode-locking
CPA
12
10 Atomic Era

radio-frequency-emitting devices. 10
10 Q-switching

Gould’s notes included possible applications for a laser, 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
such as spectrometry, interferometry, radar, and nuclear
fusion. He continued developing the idea, and filed a
Graph showing the history of maximum laser pulse intensity
patent application in April 1959. The U.S. Patent Office throughout the past 40 years.
denied his application, and awarded a patent to Bell Labs,
in 1960. That provoked a twenty-eight-year lawsuit, fea-
turing scientific prestige and money as the stakes. Gould Since the early period of laser history, laser research
won his first minor patent in 1977, yet it was not until has produced a variety of improved and specialized laser
1987 that he won the first significant patent lawsuit vic- types, optimized for different performance goals, includ-
tory, when a Federal judge ordered the U.S. Patent Office ing:
to issue patents to Gould for the optically pumped and the
gas discharge laser devices. The question of just how to • new wavelength bands
assign credit for inventing the laser remains unresolved
by historians.[15] • maximum average output power
On May 16, 1960, Theodore H. Maiman operated the
first functioning laser,[16][17] at Hughes Research Labo- • maximum peak pulse energy
ratories, Malibu, California, ahead of several research
• maximum peak pulse power
teams, including those of Townes, at Columbia Univer-
sity, Arthur Schawlow, at Bell Labs,[18] and Gould, at the
• minimum output pulse duration
TRG (Technical Research Group) company. Maiman’s
functional laser used a solid-state flashlamp-pumped syn-
• maximum power efficiency
thetic ruby crystal to produce red laser light, at 694
nanometers wavelength; however, the device only was • minimum cost
capable of pulsed operation, because of its three-level
pumping design scheme. Later that year, the Iranian
physicist Ali Javan, and William R. Bennett, and Donald and this research continues to this day.
Herriott, constructed the first gas laser, using helium and Lasing without maintaining the medium excited into a
neon that was capable of continuous operation in the in- population inversion was discovered in 1992 in sodium
frared (U.S. Patent 3,149,290); later, Javan received the gas and again in 1995 in rubidium gas by various interna-
Albert Einstein Award in 1993. Basov and Javan pro- tional teams. This was accomplished by using an external
posed the semiconductor laser diode concept. In 1962, maser to induce “optical transparency” in the medium by
Robert N. Hall demonstrated the first laser diode device, introducing and destructively interfering the ground elec-
made of gallium arsenide and emitted at 850 nm the near- tron transitions between two paths, so that the likelihood
infrared band of the spectrum. Later that year, Nick for the ground electrons to absorb any energy has been
Holonyak, Jr. demonstrated the first semiconductor laser cancelled.
6.2 Solid-state lasers 9

6 Types and operating principles 6.1.1 Chemical lasers

Chemical lasers are powered by a chemical reaction per-

For a more complete list of laser types see this mitting a large amount of energy to be released quickly.
list of laser types. Such very high power lasers are especially of interest to
the military, however continuous wave chemical lasers at
very high power levels, fed by streams of gasses, have
been developed and have some industrial applications. As
(doubled) 347 nm

Nd:YAG (doubled) 532 nm

He-Ne 1523 nm Er:glass 1.54 µm

Ar 351 nm

Iodine 1315 nm Nd:YAG 1319 nm

He-Ag+ 224.3 nm KrCl excimer 222 nm

He-Ne +632.8 nm Gold vapor 628 nm

examples, in the hydrogen fluoride laser (2700–2900 nm)

(other hosts 1047-1079 nm)

Methanol 37.9, 70.5, 96.5, 118 µm

Nitrogen 337.1 nm Ne 332.4 nm
XeF excimer 351 nm Ruby 2+

He-Ne 543.5 nm Xe 539.5 nm

Copper vapor 510.5 nm

Copper vapor 578.2 nm

Nd:YAG (5 thharmonic) 213 nm

Nd:YAG (4 thharmonic) 266 nm

and the deuterium fluoride laser (3800 nm) the reaction is

Nd:YAG 1064 nm

CO2 10.6 µm
Nd:YAG (tripled) 355 nm

Ruby 694.3 nm
+

Er:YAG 2.90, 2.94 µm

Methyl fluoride 496 µm

Methylamine 147.8 µm
Methanol 571, 699 µm
XeCl excimer 308 nm

3+
ArF excimer 193 nm

KrF excimer 248 nm

F2 excimer 157 nm

Ar + 488.0 nm

Er:YSGG 2.79 µm
Kr 647.1 nm
Ar + 514.5 nm

Tm:YAG 2.01 µm
Pulse CW
He-Ne 594.1 nm
He-Ne 611.9 nm

He-Ne 3.391 µm
He-Cd 441.6 nm

Ho:YAG 2.08 µm
He-Ne 1152 nm
Nd:YAG 946 nm
the combination of hydrogen or deuterium gas with com-
He-Cd 325 nm

energy power

1 kJ 1 kW

1J 1W
bustion products of ethylene in nitrogen trifluoride.
1 mJ 1 mW X-RAYS FAR-IR
ULTRAVIOLET VISIBLE NEAR-INFRARED MID-INFRARED
100 nm 200 nm 300 nm 400 nm 500 nm 600 nm 700 nm 800 nm 900 nm 1 µm 3 µm 10 µm 30 µm 1 mm

1 mJ 1 mW Dyes in
polymer InGaAs Xe-He
550-700 nm 904-1065 nm 2-4 µm
Dyes CO 2 (doubled) Pb salts
Ti:sapphire 4.6-5.8 µm
1J 1W He-Au
+
0.38-1.0 µm 3.3-27 µm
(tripled) Ti:sapphire InGaAlP
235-330 nm Ne-Cu 282-292 nm
+
Cr fluoride CO
248-270 nm Alexandrite (doubled) 630-685 nm CO 2
780-850 nm 5-7 µm

6.1.2 Excimer lasers

(doubled) 360-460 nm Alexandrite InGaAs
DF chemical 9.2-11.4 µm
1 kJ 1 kW Dyes (doubled) GaN
360-400 nm 700-800 nm 1.27-1.33 µm
0.2-0.4 µm 515-520 nm 3.6-4.0 µm
InGaN GaAlAs 1.43-1.57 µm
Ti:sapphire Fosterite HF chemical
370-493 nm 750-850 nm
670-1130 nm 1.13-1.36 µm 2.6-3.0 µm
AlGaIn/AsSb
1.87-2.2 µm
Dyes (Raman shifted)
0.9-4.5 µm

Excimer lasers are a special sort of gas laser powered

Wavelengths of commercially available lasers. Laser types with by an electric discharge in which the lasing medium
distinct laser lines are shown above the wavelength bar, while is an excimer, or more precisely an exciplex in exist-
below are shown lasers that can emit in a wavelength range. The ing designs. These are molecules which can only exist
color codifies the type of laser material (see the figure description
with one atom in an excited electronic state. Once the
for more details).
molecule transfers its excitation energy to a photon, there-
fore, its atoms are no longer bound to each other and
the molecule disintegrates. This drastically reduces the
population of the lower energy state thus greatly facili-
6.1 Gas lasers tating a population inversion. Excimers currently used
are all noble gas compounds; noble gasses are chemi-
Main article: Gas laser cally inert and can only form compounds while in an ex-
cited state. Excimer lasers typically operate at ultraviolet
wavelengths with major applications including semicon-
Following the invention of the HeNe gas laser, many
ductor photolithography and LASIK eye surgery. Com-
other gas discharges have been found to amplify light
monly used excimer molecules include ArF (emission at
coherently. Gas lasers using many different gases have
193 nm), KrCl (222 nm), KrF (248 nm), XeCl (308 nm),
been built and used for many purposes. The helium–neon
and XeF (351 nm).[22] The molecular fluorine laser, emit-
laser (HeNe) is able to operate at a number of different
ting at 157 nm in the vacuum ultraviolet is sometimes re-
wavelengths, however the vast majority are engineered to
ferred to as an excimer laser, however this appears to be
lase at 633 nm; these relatively low cost but highly co-
a misnomer inasmuch as F2 is a stable compound.
herent lasers are extremely common in optical research
and educational laboratories. Commercial carbon diox-
ide (CO2 ) lasers can emit many hundreds of watts in a
single spatial mode which can be concentrated into a tiny
6.2 Solid-state lasers
spot. This emission is in the thermal infrared at 10.6 µm;
such lasers are regularly used in industry for cutting and Solid-state lasers use a crystalline or glass rod which
welding. The efficiency of a CO2 laser is unusually high: is “doped” with ions that provide the required energy
over 30%.[19] Argon-ion lasers can operate at a number of states. For example, the first working laser was a ruby
lasing transitions between 351 and 528.7 nm. Depending laser, made from ruby (chromium-doped corundum).
on the optical design one or more of these transitions can The population inversion is actually maintained in the
be lasing simultaneously; the most commonly used lines dopant. These materials are pumped optically using a
are 458 nm, 488 nm and 514.5 nm. A nitrogen transverse shorter wavelength than the lasing wavelength, often from
electrical discharge in gas at atmospheric pressure (TEA) a flashtube or from another laser. The usage of the term
laser is an inexpensive gas laser, often home-built by “solid-state” in laser physics is narrower than in typical
hobbyists, which produces rather incoherent UV light at use. Semiconductor lasers (laser diodes) are typically not
337.1 nm.[20] Metal ion lasers are gas lasers that generate referred to as solid-state lasers.
deep ultraviolet wavelengths. Helium-silver (HeAg) 224 Neodymium is a common dopant in various solid-
nm and neon-copper (NeCu) 248 nm are two examples. state laser crystals, including yttrium orthovanadate (Nd:
Like all low-pressure gas lasers, the gain media of these YVO4 ), yttrium lithium fluoride (Nd:YLF) and yttrium
lasers have quite narrow oscillation linewidths, less than aluminium garnet (Nd:YAG). All these lasers can pro-
3 GHz (0.5 picometers),[21] making them candidates for duce high powers in the infrared spectrum at 1064 nm.
use in fluorescence suppressed Raman spectroscopy. They are used for cutting, welding and marking of met-
10 6 TYPES AND OPERATING PRINCIPLES

converted pump power that heats the medium. This

heat, when coupled with a high thermo-optic coefficient
(dn/dT) can cause thermal lensing and reduce the quan-
tum efficiency. Diode-pumped thin disk lasers overcome
these issues by having a gain medium that is much thin-
ner than the diameter of the pump beam. This allows for
a more uniform temperature in the material. Thin disk
lasers have been shown to produce beams of up to one
kilowatt.[23]

6.3 Fiber lasers

Main article: Fiber laser

Solid-state lasers or laser amplifiers where the light is

guided due to the total internal reflection in a single mode
optical fiber are instead called fiber lasers. Guiding of
light allows extremely long gain regions providing good
cooling conditions; fibers have high surface area to vol-
ume ratio which allows efficient cooling. In addition, the
fiber’s waveguiding properties tend to reduce thermal dis-
tortion of the beam. Erbium and ytterbium ions are com-
mon active species in such lasers.
Quite often, the fiber laser is designed as a double-clad
fiber. This type of fiber consists of a fiber core, an inner
A 50 W FASOR, based on a Nd:YAG laser, used at the Starfire cladding and an outer cladding. The index of the three
Optical Range. concentric layers is chosen so that the fiber core acts as
a single-mode fiber for the laser emission while the outer
cladding acts as a highly multimode core for the pump
als and other materials, and also in spectroscopy and for laser. This lets the pump propagate a large amount of
pumping dye lasers. These lasers are also commonly power into and through the active inner core region, while
frequency doubled, tripled or quadrupled to produce 532 still having a high numerical aperture (NA) to have easy
nm (green, visible), 355 nm and 266 nm (UV) beams, re- launching conditions.
spectively. Frequency-doubled diode-pumped solid-state Pump light can be used more efficiently by creating a fiber
(DPSS) lasers are used to make bright green laser point- disk laser, or a stack of such lasers.
ers.
Fiber lasers have a fundamental limit in that the inten-
Ytterbium, holmium, thulium, and erbium are other com- sity of the light in the fiber cannot be so high that optical
mon “dopants” in solid-state lasers. Ytterbium is used nonlinearities induced by the local electric field strength
in crystals such as Yb:YAG, Yb:KGW, Yb:KYW, Yb: can become dominant and prevent laser operation and/or
SYS, Yb:BOYS, Yb:CaF2 , typically operating around lead to the material destruction of the fiber. This effect is
1020–1050 nm. They are potentially very efficient and called photodarkening. In bulk laser materials, the cool-
high powered due to a small quantum defect. Extremely ing is not so efficient, and it is difficult to separate the ef-
high powers in ultrashort pulses can be achieved with fects of photodarkening from the thermal effects, but the
Yb:YAG. Holmium-doped YAG crystals emit at 2097 experiments in fibers show that the photodarkening can
nm and form an efficient laser operating at infrared wave- be attributed to the formation of long-living color cen-
lengths strongly absorbed by water-bearing tissues. The ters.
Ho-YAG is usually operated in a pulsed mode, and passed
through optical fiber surgical devices to resurface joints,
remove rot from teeth, vaporize cancers, and pulverize
kidney and gall stones. 6.4 Photonic crystal lasers
Titanium-doped sapphire (Ti:sapphire) produces a highly Photonic crystal lasers are lasers based on nano-structures
tunable infrared laser, commonly used for spectroscopy. that provide the mode confinement and the density of op-
It is also notable for use as a mode-locked laser producing
tical states (DOS) structure required for the feedback to
ultrashort pulses of extremely high peak power. take place. They are typical micrometer-sized and tun-
Thermal limitations in solid-state lasers arise from un- able on the bands of the photonic crystals.[24]
6.6 Dye lasers 11

6.5 Semiconductor lasers a difficult lasing material to deal with, since it has cer-
tain properties which block lasing. However, recently
teams have produced silicon lasers through methods such
as fabricating the lasing material from silicon and other
semiconductor materials, such as indium(III) phosphide
or gallium(III) arsenide, materials which allow coherent
light to be produced from silicon. These are called hybrid
silicon laser. Another type is a Raman laser, which takes
advantage of Raman scattering to produce a laser from
materials such as silicon.

6.6 Dye lasers

A 5.6 mm 'closed can' commercial laser diode, probably from a

CD or DVD player

Semiconductor lasers are diodes which are electrically

pumped. Recombination of electrons and holes created
by the applied current introduces optical gain. Reflection
from the ends of the crystal form an optical resonator, al-
though the resonator can be external to the semiconductor
in some designs.
Commercial laser diodes emit at wavelengths from 375
nm to 3500 nm.[25] Low to medium power laser diodes
are used in laser pointers, laser printers and CD/DVD
players. Laser diodes are also frequently used to opti-
cally pump other lasers with high efficiency. The high-
est power industrial laser diodes, with power up to 10
Close-up of a table-top dye laser based on Rhodamine 6G
kW (70 dBm), are used in industry for cutting and weld-
ing. External-cavity semiconductor lasers have a semi-
conductor active medium in a larger cavity. These de- Dye lasers use an organic dye as the gain medium. The
vices can generate high power outputs with good beam wide gain spectrum of available dyes, or mixtures of
quality, wavelength-tunable narrow-linewidth radiation, dyes, allows these lasers to be highly tunable, or to
or ultrashort laser pulses. produce very short-duration pulses (on the order of a
few femtoseconds). Although these tunable lasers are
In 2012, Nichia and OSRAM developed and man- mainly known in their liquid form, researchers have also
ufactured commercial high-power green laser diodes demonstrated narrow-linewidth tunable emission in dis-
(515/520 nm), which compete with traditional diode- persive oscillator configurations incorporating solid-state
pumped solid-state lasers.[26][27] dye gain media.[29] In their most prevalent form these
Vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are solid state dye lasers use dye-doped polymers as laser me-
semiconductor lasers whose emission direction is per- dia.
pendicular to the surface of the wafer. VCSEL devices
typically have a more circular output beam than con-
ventional laser diodes. As of 2005, only 850 nm VC- 6.7 Free-electron lasers
SELs are widely available, with 1300 nm VCSELs be-
ginning to be commercialized,[28] and 1550 nm devices Free-electron lasers, or FELs, generate coherent, high
an area of research. VECSELs are external-cavity VC- power radiation that is widely tunable, currently ranging
SELs. Quantum cascade lasers are semiconductor lasers in wavelength from microwaves through terahertz radia-
that have an active transition between energy sub-bands tion and infrared to the visible spectrum, to soft X-rays.
of an electron in a structure containing several quantum They have the widest frequency range of any laser type.
wells. While FEL beams share the same optical traits as other
The development of a silicon laser is important in the field lasers, such as coherent radiation, FEL operation is quite
of optical computing. Silicon is the material of choice different. Unlike gas, liquid, or solid-state lasers, which
for integrated circuits, and so electronic and silicon pho- rely on bound atomic or molecular states, FELs use a rel-
tonic components (such as optical interconnects) could ativistic electron beam as the lasing medium, hence the
be fabricated on the same chip. Unfortunately, silicon is term free-electron.
12 7 USES

The free-electron laser FELIX at the FOM Institute for Plasma

Physics Rijnhuizen, Nieuwegein

6.8 Exotic media

In September 2007, the BBC News reported that there

was speculation about the possibility of using positronium
annihilation to drive a very powerful gamma ray laser.[30]
Dr. David Cassidy of the University of California, River-
Lasers range in size from microscopic diode lasers (top) with
side proposed that a single such laser could be used to
numerous applications, to football field sized neodymium glass
ignite a nuclear fusion reaction, replacing the banks of
lasers (bottom) used for inertial confinement fusion, nuclear
hundreds of lasers currently employed in inertial confine- weapons research and other high energy density physics experi-
ment fusion experiments.[30] ments.
Space-based X-ray lasers pumped by a nuclear explosion
have also been proposed as antimissile weapons.[31][32]
ulation was the supermarket barcode scanner, introduced
Such devices would be one-shot weapons.
in 1974. The laserdisc player, introduced in 1978, was
Living cells have been used to produce laser light.[33][34] the first successful consumer product to include a laser
The cells were genetically engineered to produce green but the compact disc player was the first laser-equipped
fluorescent protein (GFP). The GFP is used as the laser’s device to become common, beginning in 1982 followed
“gain medium”, where light amplification takes place. shortly by laser printers.
The cells were then placed between two tiny mirrors, just
Some other uses are:
20 millionths of a meter across, which acted as the “laser
cavity” in which light could bounce many times through
the cell. Upon bathing the cell with blue light, it could be • Medicine: Bloodless surgery, laser healing, surgical
seen to emit directed and intense green laser light. treatment, kidney stone treatment, eye treatment,
dentistry.

• Industry: Cutting, welding, material heat treatment,

7 Uses marking parts, non-contact measurement of parts.

• Military: Marking targets, guiding munitions,

Main article: List of applications for lasers missile defence, electro-optical countermeasures
(EOCM), alternative to radar, blinding troops.
When lasers were invented in 1960, they were called “a
solution looking for a problem”.[35] Since then, they have • Law enforcement: used for latent fingerprint detec-
become ubiquitous, finding utility in thousands of highly tion in the forensic identification field[36][37]
varied applications in every section of modern society,
including consumer electronics, information technology, • Research: Spectroscopy, laser ablation, laser
science, medicine, industry, law enforcement, entertain- annealing, laser scattering, laser interferometry,
ment, and the military. Fiber-optic communication using lidar, laser capture microdissection, fluorescence
lasers is a key technology in modern communications, al- microscopy, metrology.
lowing services such as the Internet. • Product development/commercial: laser printers,
The first use of lasers in the daily lives of the general pop- optical discs (e.g. CDs and the like), barcode
7.2 Hobby uses 13

scanners, thermometers, laser pointers, holograms, • 1.3 PW (1.3×1015 W) – world’s most powerful laser
bubblegrams. as of 1998, located at the Lawrence Livermore Lab-
oratory[44]
• Laser lighting displays: Laser light shows.
• Cosmetic skin treatments: acne treatment, cellulite
and striae reduction, and hair removal. 7.2 Hobby uses

In recent years, some hobbyists have taken interests in

In 2004, excluding diode lasers, approximately 131,000
[38] lasers. Lasers used by hobbyists are generally of class
lasers were sold with a value of US$2.19 billion. In
IIIa or IIIb (see Safety), although some have made their
the same year, approximately 733 million diode lasers,
[39] own class IV types.[45] However, compared to other hob-
valued at $3.20 billion, were sold.
byists, laser hobbyists are far less common, due to the cost
and potential dangers involved. Due to the cost of lasers,
7.1 Examples by power some hobbyists use inexpensive means to obtain lasers,
such as salvaging laser diodes from broken DVD players
(red), Blu-ray players (violet), or even higher power laser
diodes from CD or DVD burners.[46]
Hobbyists also have been taking surplus pulsed lasers
from retired military applications and modifying them for
pulsed holography. Pulsed Ruby and pulsed YAG lasers
have been used.

8 Safety

Laser application in astronomical adaptive optics imaging Left: European laser warning symbol required for Class
2 lasers and higher. Right: US laser warning label, in
Different applications need lasers with different output this case for a Class 3B laser
powers. Lasers that produce a continuous beam or a se- Main article: Laser safety
ries of short pulses can be compared on the basis of their
average power. Lasers that produce pulses can also be
Even the first laser was recognized as being potentially
characterized based on the peak power of each pulse. The
dangerous. Theodore Maiman characterized the first
peak power of a pulsed laser is many orders of magnitude
laser as having a power of one “Gillette” as it could burn
greater than its average power. The average output power
through one Gillette razor blade. Today, it is accepted
is always less than the power consumed.
that even low-power lasers with only a few milliwatts of
Examples of pulsed systems with high peak power: output power can be hazardous to human eyesight when
the beam hits the eye directly or after reflection from a
• 700 TW (700×1012 W) – National Ignition Facility, shiny surface. At wavelengths which the cornea and the
a 192-beam, 1.8-megajoule laser system adjoining a lens can focus well, the coherence and low divergence of
10-meter-diameter target chamber.[43] laser light means that it can be focused by the eye into an
14 9 AS WEAPONS

extremely small spot on the retina, resulting in localized

burning and permanent damage in seconds or even less
time.
Lasers are usually labeled with a safety class number,
which identifies how dangerous the laser is:

• Class 1 is inherently safe, usually because the light is

contained in an enclosure, for example in CD play-
ers.

• Class 2 is safe during normal use; the blink reflex of

the eye will prevent damage. Usually up to 1 mW
power, for example laser pointers.
The US-Israeli Tactical High Energy weapon has been used to
shoot down rockets and artillery shells.
• Class 3R (formerly IIIa) lasers are usually up to 5
mW and involve a small risk of eye damage within
the time of the blink reflex. Staring into such a beam weapons. The extreme handicap that laser-induced blind-
for several seconds is likely to cause damage to a spot ness represents makes the use of lasers even as non-lethal
on the retina. weapons morally controversial, and weapons designed to
cause blindness have been banned by the Protocol on
• Class 3B can cause immediate eye damage upon ex- Blinding Laser Weapons. Incidents of pilots being ex-
posure. posed to lasers while flying have prompted aviation au-
thorities to implement special procedures to deal with
• Class 4 lasers can burn skin, and in some cases, even
such hazards.[47]
scattered light can cause eye and/or skin damage.
Many industrial and scientific lasers are in this class. Laser weapons capable of directly damaging or destroy-
ing a target in combat are still in the experimental stage.
The indicated powers are for visible-light, continuous- The general idea of laser-beam weaponry is to hit a target
wave lasers. For pulsed lasers and invisible wavelengths, with a train of brief pulses of light. The rapid evapora-
other power limits apply. People working with class 3B tion and expansion of the surface causes shockwaves that
and class 4 lasers can protect their eyes with safety gog- damage the target. The power needed to project a high-
gles which are designed to absorb light of a particular powered laser beam of this kind is beyond the limit of
wavelength. current mobile power technology, thus favoring chemi-
cally powered gas dynamic lasers. Example experimental
Infrared lasers with wavelengths longer than about 1.4 systems include MIRACL and the Tactical High Energy
micrometers are often referred to as “eye-safe”, because Laser.
the cornea tends to absorb light at these wavelengths, pro-
tecting the retina from damage. The label “eye-safe” can
be misleading, however, as it applies only to relatively
low power continuous wave beams; a high power or Q-
switched laser at these wavelengths can burn the cornea,
causing severe eye damage, and even moderate power
lasers can injure the eye.

9 As weapons
Lasers of all but the lowest powers can potentially be used Boeing YAL-1. The laser system is mounted in a turret attached
as incapacitating weapons, through their ability to pro- to the aircraft nose
duce temporary or permanent vision loss in varying de-
grees when aimed at the eyes. The degree, character, and Throughout the 2000s, the United States Air Force
duration of vision impairment caused by eye exposure to worked on the Boeing YAL-1, an airborne laser mounted
laser light varies with the power of the laser, the wave- in a Boeing 747. It was intended to be used to shoot
length(s), the collimation of the beam, the exact orienta- down incoming ballistic missiles over enemy territory. In
tion of the beam, and the duration of exposure. Lasers March 2009, Northrop Grumman claimed that its engi-
of even a fraction of a watt in power can produce im- neers in Redondo Beach had successfully built and tested
mediate, permanent vision loss under certain conditions, an electrically powered solid state laser capable of pro-
making such lasers potential non-lethal but incapacitating ducing a 100-kilowatt beam, powerful enough to destroy
 15

an airplane. According to Brian Strickland, manager for • Rytov number

the United States Army's Joint High Power Solid State
Laser program, an electrically powered laser is capable • Sound amplification by stimulated emission of radi-
of being mounted in an aircraft, ship, or other vehicle be- ation
cause it requires much less space for its supporting equip-
• Selective laser sintering
ment than a chemical laser.[48] However, the source of
such a large electrical power in a mobile application re- • Spaser
mained unclear. Ultimately, the project was deemed to
be infeasible,[49][50][51] and was cancelled in December • Speckle pattern
2011,[52] with the Boeing YAL-1 prototype being stored
and eventually dismantled. • Tophat beam

The United States Navy is developing a laser weapon re-

ferred to as the Laser Weapon System or LaWS.[53]
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[27] “Green Laser”. osram-os.com. August 19, 2015. Retrieved March 15, 2008.

[28] “Picolight ships first 4-Gbit/s 1310-nm VCSEL [45] PowerLabs CO2 LASER! Sam Barros June 21, 2006. Re-
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[30] Fildes, Jonathan (September 12, 2007). “Mirror particles 2009. Retrieved April 4, 2010.
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 17

[51] Hodge, Nathan (February 11, 2011). “Pentagon Loses • IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Elec-
War To Zap Airborne Laser From Budget”. Wall Street tronics (ISSN 1077-260X)
Journal.
• IEEE Photonics Technology Letters (ISSN 1041-
[52] Butler, Amy (December 21, 2011). “Lights Out For The 1135)
Airborne Laser”. Aviation Week.
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[53] Luis Martinez (9 Apr 2013). “Navy’s New Laser Weapon
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Blasts Bad Guys From Air, Sea”. ABC. Retrieved 9 April
2013. • Laser Focus World (ISSN 0740-2511)

• Optics Letters (ISSN 0146-9592)

12 Further reading • Photonics Spectra (ISSN 0731-1230)

Books
13 External links
• Bertolotti, Mario (1999, trans. 2004). The History
of the Laser. Institute of Physics. ISBN 0-7503- • Encyclopedia of laser physics and technology by Dr.
0911-3. Rüdiger Paschotta
• Bromberg, Joan Lisa (1991). The Laser in America, • A Practical Guide to Lasers for Experimenters and
1950–1970. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-02318-4. Hobbyists by Samuel M. Goldwasser
• Csele, Mark (2004). Fundamentals of Light Sources • Homebuilt Lasers Page by Professor Mark Csele
and Lasers. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-47660-9.
• Powerful laser is 'brightest light in the universe' –
• Koechner, Walter (1992). Solid-State Laser Engi- The world’s most powerful laser as of 2008 might
neering. 3rd ed. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0-387- create supernova-like shock waves and possibly even
53756-2. antimatter (New Scientist, April 9, 2008)
• Siegman, Anthony E. (1986). Lasers. University • "Laser Fundamentals" an online course by Prof. F.
Science Books. ISBN 0-935702-11-3. Balembois and Dr. S. Forget. Instrumentation for
Optics, 2008, (accessed January 17, 2014)
• Silfvast, William T. (1996). Laser Fundamentals.
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-55617-1. • Northrop Grumman’s Press Release on the Fire-
strike 15kw tactical laser product.
• Svelto, Orazio (1998). Principles of Lasers. 4th
ed. Trans. David Hanna. Springer. ISBN 0-306- • Website on Lasers 50th anniversary by APS, OSA,
45748-2. SPIE
• Taylor, Nick (2000). LASER: The inventor, the No- • Advancing the Laser anniversary site by SPIE:
bel laureate, and the thirty-year patent war. New Video interviews, open-access articles, posters,
York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-83515-0. DVDs
• Wilson, J. & Hawkes, J.F.B. (1987). Lasers: Prin- • Bright Idea: The First Lasers history of the inven-
ciples and Applications. Prentice Hall International tion, with audio interview clips.
Series in Optoelectronics, Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-
13-523697-5. • Free software for Simulation of random laser dy-
namics
• Yariv, Amnon (1989). Quantum Electronics. 3rd ed.
Wiley. ISBN 0-471-60997-8. • Video Demonstrations in Lasers and Optics Pro-
duced by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT). Real-time effects are demonstrated in a way
Periodicals
that would be difficult to see in a classroom setting.

• Applied Physics B: Lasers and Optics (ISSN 0946- • Virtual Museum of Laser History, from the touring
2171) exhibit by SPIE

• IEEE Journal of Lightwave Technology (ISSN 0733- • website with animations, applications and research
8724) about laser and other quantum based phenomena
Universite Paris Sud
• IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics (ISSN 0018-
9197)
18 14 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

14 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

14.1 Text
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OHmanEARTHBOUND, Jlaramee, Earendilmm, Soliloquial, QuackGuru, Amh library, Charleca, TXiKiBoT, Killermatt18, FDominec,
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Crazyw00t1, Buffs, Mwilso24, Zain Ebrahim111, Wenli, Andy Dingley, Operating, Valkyryn, Lukus lee, Ecopetition, Amwyll Rwden,
Yatoast, SmileToday, Enviroboy, Insanity Incarnate, Raluaces, Brianga, Baggio10~enwiki, Symane, PGWG, Phox63, Gmankiller2, Jel-
14.2 Images 19

lies1324, EverGreg, Chuck Sirloin, NHRHS2010, Gandhi21~enwiki, EmxBot, Aeiouuu, TimProof, John water, Johncarini, Blueking12,
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KathrynLybarger, Hobartimus, Macy, Nancy, Anakin101, Smartkid23, Iluvjlpicard, Thinghy, Hamiltondaniel, Abmcdonald, Dust Filter,
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land1jmm, GreenSpigot, Taroaldo, Nebrot, UserDoe, Shinpah1, Doseiai2, Boing! said Zebedee, CounterVandalismBot, Niceguyedc,
EconomicsGuy, TypoBoy, DanielleJ, Sandeepjshenoy, Handcloud returns, PaedosAreKewl, Special needs LOL, Pmronchi, Eeekster, Ru-
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Limitless undying love, ScientistMr and Anonymous: 1159

14.2 Images
• File:Aleksandr_Prokhorov.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Aleksandr_Prokhorov.jpg License:
Public domain Contributors: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1964/prokhorov-bio.html Original artist: Nobel foun-
dation
• File:Coherent_899_dye_laser.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Coherent_899_dye_laser.jpg Li-
cense: CC BY 2.5 Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
• File:Commercial_laser_lines.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Commercial_laser_lines.svg License:
CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors:
The data and its references can be found in the spreadsheet Commercial laser lines.xls (unfortunately Wikipedia does not allow uploading
spreadsheets). Currently most of the data is taken from Weber’s book Handbook of laser wavelengths [#cite_note-1 [1]] , with newer data in
particular for semiconductor lasers. For quasi-cw lasers (e.g. metal vapor lasers) the length of the full line gives the mean power. Uses
File:Linear visible spectrum.svg
Original artist: Danh
• File:Commons-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: ? Contributors: ? Original
artist: ?
• File:DIN_4844-2_Warnung_vor_Laserstrahl_D-W010.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/DIN_
4844-2_Warnung_vor_Laserstrahl_D-W010.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work Original artist: Torsten Henning
• File:Diode_laser.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Diode_laser.jpg License: Public domain Contrib-
utors: Jet Propulsion Laboratory website: http://technology.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/index.cfm?page=imageDetail&ItemID=120&catId=8
(archive) Original artist: ?
• File:FELIX.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/FELIX.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own
work Original artist: China Crisis
• File:Folder_Hexagonal_Icon.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/48/Folder_Hexagonal_Icon.svg License: Cc-by-
sa-3.0 Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
• File:Gould_notebook_001.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dd/Gould_notebook_001.jpg License: Fair use
Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
• File:Helium_neon_laser_spectrum.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Helium_neon_laser_spectrum.
svg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors:
• Helium_neon_laser_spectrum.png Original artist:
• derivative work: Papa November (<a href='//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Papa_November' title='User talk:Papa Novem-
ber'>talk</a>)
20 14 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

• File:History_of_laser_intensity.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/History_of_laser_intensity.svg Li-

cense: Public domain Contributors: No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims). Original artist:
No machine-readable author provided. Slashme assumed (based on copyright claims).
• File:LASER.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/LASER.jpg License: CC BY 2.5 Contributors: Own
work Original artist:
• File:Laser,_quantum_principle.ogv Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Laser%2C_quantum_principle.
ogv License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Jubobroff
• File:Laser.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Laser.svg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: Own
work Original artist: User:Tatoute
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Retrieved on 29 June 2013. Original artist: US Missile Defense Agency

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