---
title: "List of laser applications"
chunk: 1/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_laser_applications"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:27:56.948990+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Many scientific, military, medical and commercial laser applications have been developed since the invention of the laser in 1958. The coherency, high monochromaticity, and ability to reach extremely high powers are all properties which allow for these specialized applications.

== Scientific ==
In science, lasers are used in many ways, including:

A wide variety of interferometric techniques
Raman spectroscopy
Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy
Atmospheric remote sensing
Investigating nonlinear optics phenomena
Holographic techniques employing lasers also contribute to a number of measurement techniques.
Laser based lidar (LIght raDAR) technology applications in geology, seismology, remote sensing and atmospheric physics.
Three-dimensional structural modifications and writing inside technological materials.
Lasers have been used aboard spacecraft such as in the Cassini-Huygens mission.
In astronomy, lasers have been used to create artificial laser guide stars, used as reference objects for adaptive optics telescopes.
Lasers may also be indirectly used in spectroscopy as a micro-sampling system, a technique termed Laser ablation (LA), which is typically applied to ICP-MS apparatus resulting in the powerful LA-ICP-MS.
The principles of laser spectroscopy are discussed by Demtröder.

=== Spectroscopy ===
Most types of laser are an inherently pure source of light; they emit near-monochromatic light with a very well defined range of wavelengths. By careful design of the laser components, the purity of the laser light (measured as the "linewidth") can be improved more than the purity of any other light source. This makes the laser a very useful source for spectroscopy. The high intensity of light that can be achieved in a small, well collimated beam can also be used to induce a nonlinear optical effect in a sample, which makes techniques such as Raman spectroscopy possible. Other spectroscopic techniques based on lasers can be used to make extremely sensitive detectors of various molecules, able to measure molecular concentrations in the parts-per-1012 (ppt) level. Due to the high power densities achievable by lasers, beam-induced atomic emission is possible: this technique is termed Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

=== Heat treatment ===
Heat treating with the lasers allows selective surface hardening against wear with little or no distortion of the component. Because this eliminates much part reworking that is currently done, the laser system's capital cost is recovered in a short time. An inert, absorbent coating for laser heat treatment has also been developed that eliminates the fumes generated by conventional paint coatings during the heat-treating process with CO2 laser beams.
One consideration crucial to the success of a heat treatment operation is control of the laser beam irradiance on the part surface. The optimal irradiance distribution is driven by the thermodynamics of the laser-material interaction and by the part geometry.
Typically, irradiances between 500 and 5000 W/cm^2 satisfy the thermodynamic constraints and allow the rapid surface heating and minimal total heat input required. For general heat treatment, a uniform square or rectangular beam is one of the best options. For some special applications or applications where the heat treatment is done on an edge or corner of the part, it may be better to have the irradiance decrease near the edge to prevent melting.

=== Weather ===
Research shows that scientists may one day be able to induce rain and lightning storms (as well as micro-manipulating some other weather phenomena) using high energy lasers. Such a breakthrough could potentially eradicate droughts, help alleviate weather related catastrophes, and allocate weather resources to areas in need.

=== Lunar laser ranging ===

When the Apollo astronauts visited the Moon, they planted retroreflector arrays to make possible the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment. Laser beams are focused through large telescopes on Earth aimed toward the arrays, and the time taken for the beam to be reflected back to Earth measured to determine the distance between the Earth and Moon with high accuracy.

=== Photochemistry ===
Some laser systems, through the process of mode locking, can produce extremely brief pulses of light - as short as picoseconds or femtoseconds (10−12 - 10−15 seconds). Such pulses can be used to initiate and analyze chemical reactions, a technique known as photochemistry. The short pulses can be used to probe the process of the reaction at a very high temporal resolution, allowing the detection of short-lived intermediate molecules. This method is particularly useful in biochemistry, where it is used to analyse details of protein folding and function.

=== Laser scanner ===

Laser barcode scanners are ideal for applications that require high speed reading of linear codes or stacked symbols.

=== Laser cooling ===

A technique that has recent success is laser cooling. This involves atom trapping, a method where a number of atoms are confined in a specially shaped arrangement of electric and magnetic fields. Shining particular wavelengths of light at the ions or atoms slows them down, thus cooling them. As this process is continued, they all are slowed and have the same energy level, forming an unusual arrangement of matter known as a Bose–Einstein condensate.

=== Nuclear fusion ===

Some of the world's most powerful and complex arrangements of multiple lasers and optical amplifiers are used to produce extremely high intensity pulses of light of extremely short duration, e.g. laboratory for laser energetics, National Ignition Facility, GEKKO XII, Nike laser, Laser Mégajoule, HiPER. These pulses are arranged such that they impact pellets of tritium–deuterium simultaneously from all directions, hoping that the squeezing effect of the impacts will induce atomic fusion in the pellets. This technique, known as "inertial confinement fusion", so far has not been able to achieve "breakeven", that is, so far the fusion reaction generates less power than is used to power the lasers, however; experiments at the National Ignition Facility were able to demonstrate fusion reactions that generate more energy than was contained within the lasers driving the reaction.

=== Particle acceleration ===