High‐Power Laser Applications

This chapter covers major applications of high‐power lasers, which deliver enough energy to significantly alter materials they illuminate. High‐power laser applications involve a number of considerations that may not be immediately obvious but are essential for successful use of lasers. Materials working involves cutting, welding, drilling, and otherwise modifying industrial materials, including both metals and nonmetals. Laser medicine is based on understanding how laser light interacts with tissue. Laser photochemistry has long been considered a promising technology, but that promise has been hard to realize. Government research on laser‐driven nuclear fusion began in the 1960s and has continued since then with the dual goals of developing civilian fusion reactors and military simulation of the explosion of hydrogen (thermonuclear) bombs. The chapter discusses the missions for laser weapons, the technology required, the problems that have been encountered, and the types of lasers that have been investigated.