Talk:Laser

Starting to reorganise, splitting laser from laser applications.

Follow section removed, since its covered in laser applications:

These properties have many uses in science and technology. (Please list some here as links.) Alternative light sources with all these properties are typically weak and cumbersome. Lasers are widely used by the armed forces in many applications. Lasers can be set to specific, pre-determined frequencies to correspond with a bomb or missile's tracking system. Because the frequency can be set to a range not normally found in natural light settings it is easy for a homing device to find and home in on the signal. Also, lasers can be mounted to weapons and collumated to line up properly with the barrel for targeting purposes. This is especially useful in night combat environments. Some lasers are not in the visable spectrum, and can only be seen using devices that can see infrared, allowing easy targeting for users utilizing night vision devices.

-- DrBob

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Rewritten, to remove redundencies and improve flow -- DrBob

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Thanks DrBob. The whole rewriting process in the last few weeks has been great. Geronimo Jones (original author).

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Can you enlarge on the early 'radio lasers' prior to masers? Have you got a reference, a name, anything? This sounds fascinating... The Anome

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The hospital I work at uses Holium YAG in the OR for laser surgery (cutting/coag). Is this the same as Nd:YAG or similar? If it is a seperate type of laser, should it be included in the list? Perhaps even in Laser Applications since it is used for surgery? We use other lasers in the OR as well, but the YAG/Holium is the newest. Nurses like it better then the others because it is smaller, easier to transport and can take more abuse without decalibration issues. Appearantly the larger lasers we use can be decalibrated easily if bumped. I'd love to see a section or article on comparisons of lasers and thier characteristics. Specifically regarding application. And diagrams would also be a place for improvement. Keep up the good work. Robert Lee

Ho:YAG is has the same host material as Nd:YAG (YAG=yttrium aluminium garnet), but a different dopant material (holmium instead of neodymium), see information about this in laser construction. This makes it operate at a longer wavelength (2.1 microns instead of 1.06 microns). Probably the best place to add stuff like this is in laser applications. Specific laser information has been on my "To-do in my copious free time" list for a while. -- DrBob