Table of Contents
Evolution of fiber lasers
Fiber lasers are used for very specialized and highly expensive devices that can be used only in the laboratory. Fiber laser modules have become more compact, more dependable, and cheaper. The fields of laser application continue to spread; they are used in such areas as surgery, welding, and industries like the military and aerospace. Compact, high-output, and cost-effective solid-state fiber laser systems take the place of traditional gas lasers in many spheres.
Main subgroups of laser systems
Usually, five big subgroups of laser systems are identified:
Gas lasers
A gas laser is a laser that is based on gases to produce coherent light. This type of laser uses several gases for different aims (hologram making, laser printing, barcode reading, etc.). The advantages of a gas laser module include a high volume of inexpensive active material, its reliability, and quick heat removal from the cavity.
Liquid lasers
Liquid lasers use a liquid crystal as the resonator cavity. The fields of application are biomedical sensing, medicine, display screens, and environmental sensing.
Plasma lasers
A plasma laser system includes plasmas produced by firing high-intensity beams of light. They are frequently used in the laboratory for recreating astrophysical plasmas.
Semiconductor lasers
Semiconductor lasers or laser diodes provoke laser vibration by flowing an electric current through a semiconductor. The advantages are compact size, low cost and power consumption, easy use, and high efficiency.
Solid-state lasers
Solid-state laser systems use the same solid media as semiconductor lasers; however, in solid-state lasers, the medium is made from crystal, glass, or ceramic materials.
Popularity of solid-state lasers
Solid-state lasers have their popularity due to the power, accuracy, and high beam quality that make them equal to argon lasers. It became possible to produce new emission wavelengths and tunable sources of laser radiation with the help of this device. The performance period of solid-state laser systems is double compared to argon lasers. Solid-state laser modules are more reliable and firm than gas lasers, which allows them to be used in several applications, for example, in medical devices. The main advantage is quite high energy efficiency. Solid-state lasers consume tens of watts less than a typical air-cooled ion laser.
Solid-state laser systems are used in the industry for welding, marking, drilling, and cutting operations, in medicine for fragile procedures, in the military and aerospace industries for weapon systems, and as detonation devices, in physics.