High power lasers constructed by university, government or military research laboratories perform a wide variety of functions such as inertial confinement fusion or missile defense. There are two kinds of high power research lasers, pulsed and continuous:
Pulse lasers operate for very short periods usually for much less than one second. They can produce extremely high peak powers (energy divided by pulse duration) but only for a very short period of time. Many pulsed lasers have very low average powers (total energy produced in one second of operation)
Continuous lasers operate continuously for periods exceeding one second. The familiar laser pointer is one example. These lasers usually have a relatively high average power and are often classified as military lasers.
Efficiencies and power levels of lasers
| Type | Wavelength (mm) |
Efficiency | Power levels available (W) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pulsed | CW | |||
| CO2 | 10.6 | 0.01 - 0.02 (pulsed) |
> 2 ´ 1013 | > 105 |
| CO | 5 | 0.4 | > 109 | > 100 |
| Holmium | 2.06 | 0.03 (lamp) 0.1 (diode) |
> 107 | 30 |
| Iodine | 1.315 | 0.003 | > 1012 | - |
| Nd-glass, YAG |
1.06 | 0.001 - 0.06 (lamp) > 0.1 (diode) |
~ 1014 (10 beams) |
1 - 103 |
| * Color center | 1 - 4 | 10-3 | > 106 | 1 |
| * Vibronic (Ti Sapphire) |
0.7 - 0.9 | > 0.1 ´ hp | 106 | 1 - 5 |
| Ruby | 0.6943 | < 10-3 | 1010 | 1 |
| He-Ne | 0.6328 | 10-4 | - | 1 - 50 ´ 10-3 |
| * Argon ion | 0.45 - 0.60 | 10-3 | 5 ´ 104 | 1 - 20 |
| * OPO | 0.4 - 9.0 | > 0.1 ´ hp | 106 | 1 - 5 |
| N2 | 0.3371 | 0.001 - 0.05 | 105 - 106 | - |
| * Dye | 0.3 - 1.1 | 10-3 | > 106 | 140 |
| Kr - F | 0.26 | 0.08 | > 109 | 500 |
| Xenon | 0.175 | 0.02 | > 108 | - |
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