Compact blue-green lasers get down to business

The development of solid-state, blue-green lasers, which are emerging as viable alternatives to air-cooled argon and helium-cadmium lasers for such applications as flourescent bioanalysis, optical inspection, and high-end reprographics, is summarized. Methods of efficient doubling in diode-pumped lasers, direct doubling, second harmonic generation in waveguides, and intracavity frequency mixing are discussed. The limited marketing impact of these technologies is also discussed.<
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