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Common laser types
For a more complete list of laser types see list of laser types.
Spectral output of several types of lasers.Color
Wavelength interval Frequency interval
red ~ 625 to 740 nm ~ 480 to 405 THz
orange ~ 590 to 625 nm ~ 510 to 480 THz
yellow ~ 565 to 590 nm ~ 530 to 510 THz
green ~ 520 to 565 nm ~ 580 to 530 THz
cyan ~ 500 to 520 nm ~ 600 to 580 THz
blue ~ 430 to 500 nm ~ 700 to 600 THz
violet ~ 380 to 430 nm ~ 790 to 700 THz
Gas lasers
HeNe (543 nm and 633 nm)
Argon-Ion (458 nm, 488 nm or 514.5 nm)
Carbon dioxide lasers (9.6 µm and 10.6 µm) used in industry
for cutting and welding, up to 100 kW possible
Carbon monoxide lasers, must be cooled, but extremely powerful,
up to 500 kW possible
Excimer gas lasers, producing ultraviolet light, used in semiconductor
manufacturing and in LASIK eye surgery; F2 (157 nm), ArF (193 nm),
KrCl (222 nm), KrF (248 nm), XeCl (308 nm), XeF (351 nm)
Commonly used laser types for dermatological procedures including
removal of tattoos, birthmarks, and hair: ruby (694 nm), alexandrite
(755 nm), pulsed diode array (810 nm), Nd:YAG (1064 nm), Ho:YAG
(2090 nm), Er:YAG (2940 nm)
Semiconductor laser diodes
small: used in laser pointers, laser printers, and CD/DVD players
bigger: large industrial diode lasers are available and used in
industry for cutting and welding, power up to 10 kW is possible.
Neodymium-doped YAG lasers (Nd:YAG), a high-power laser operating
in the infrared spectrum, used for cutting, welding and marking
of metals and other materials also used in spectroscopy and for
pumping dye lasers
Ytterbium-doped lasers with crystals such as Yb:YAG, Yb:KGW, Yb:KYW,
Yb:SYS, Yb:BOYS, Yb:CaF2, or Yb-doped glasses (e.g. fibers); typically
operating around 1020-1050 nm; potentially very high efficiency
and high powers due to a small quantum defect; extremely high powers
in ultrashort pulses can be achieved with Yb:YAG
Erbium-doped YAG, 1645 nm
Thulium-doped YAG, 2015 nm
Holmium-doped YAG, 2096 nm, a efficient laser operating in the infrared
spectrum, it is strongly absorbed by water-bearing tissues in sections
less than a millimeter thick. It 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.
Titanium-doped sapphire (Ti:sapphire) lasers, a highly tunable infrared
laser, used for spectroscopy
Erbium-doped fiber lasers, a type of laser formed from a specially
made optical fiber, which is used as an amplifier for optical communications.
External-cavity semiconductor lasers, e.g. for generating high power
outputs with good beam quality, wavelength-tunable narrow-linewidth
radiation, or ultrashort laser pulses
Dye lasers
Quantum cascade lasers
Hollow cathode sputtering metal ion lasers - generating deep ultraviolet
wavelengths, of which there are two examples; Helium-Silver (HeAg)
224nm & Neon-Copper (NeCu) 248nm. These lasers have particularly
narrow oscillation linewidths of less than 0.1cm-1 making them good
candidates for use in fluorescence supressed Raman spectroscopy
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