Importance of Laser Technology - What are Lasers Used for Today?

Laser technology is very important in the modern world because it is used in many fields. 

The incredible uses of laser technology include: barcode scanners, laser printers, optical disk drives, cutting and welding materials, semiconducting chip manufacturing, law enforcement devices, and free-space optical communication.

Lasers are also used in DNA sequencing instruments, surgery hair removal products and skin treatments.

Importance of laser technology in the modern world. What are lasers used for in everyday life?

The Importance of Laser Technology - What are Lasers Used for Today?

Laser Technology

Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation (LASER) is defined as electromagnetic radiation that sends equal amounts of light in terms of frequency and wavelength, which fuses together into a high-energy, highly coherent light pulse. Its angle is somewhat obtuse, and radiation stimulation relies upon to be generated.

History of Laser Technology

Although basic laser technology was invented in 1960, the laser has undergone great development ever since.

Originally the laser used sapphire crystals and was not very powerful.

Over time, many types of lasers were developed using different materials that produce laser light.

However, whether they are sapphire lasers, gas lasers, liquid lasers or semiconductor lasers, the basic principle is the same: the catalytic emission produced by a photon that faces an atom in the excited state and forces it to emit another photon with the same frequency in the same direction. These two photons drive more photons and catalytic emission occurs.

Semiconductors that are at the heart of new lasers have made possible tools such as Compact disc (CD).

The former diode laser produced light by sending current through the gallium arsenide (GaAs).

Recent Developments in Laser Technology

Scientists have recently found lasers using gallium arsenide with thin layers of gallium aluminum arsenide creating an area called the quantum wells between layers.

In this region, the electrons are tightly packed so that the device uses less energy to emit light.

The quantum well laser is highly effective in converting electricity into light, thus generating less heat. This, in turn, can operate battery-powered drive systems.

In communication systems, it can double the number of long-distance calls that can be connected to a single fiber.

A monochromatic laser light, for example, a red laser beam has only red light; it is very coherent, that is, the light from a laser is very directional; this can travel over great distances without spreading.

The high brightness of the laser is the result of spatial cohesion.

Importance of Laser Technology 

Laser technology is very important in the modern world because it is used in many fields, most notably measurement, where it is used to give high accuracy results in measuring small and large distances.

Laser technology is also used for the purposes of generating heat in industrial cutting processes.

The medical field uses it in surgical procedures. The laser is used effectively in the treatment of gallbladder and kidney stones.

The laser light intensity at focus is too high and the material response becomes non-linear.

The laser produces short pulses of light and it is possible to obtain nanosecond electric pulses (nsEPs) from several lasers.

By using the mode-locking technique, it can display the width of shorter pulses - for a few hundred femtoseconds.

Characteristics of Lasers

Spectral purity: Laser is intended that all light wavelengths in the beam are equal which increases the laser power.

Uniform color: Due to the uniformity of its wavelengths appears in one color.

Over illumination: laser light is stronger than ordinary light because it is a combination of radiation.

Highly Coherent: it does not spread in the surrounding environment, such as a light bulb, for example.

It can travel long distances without being affected or without being less intense.

Applications of Laser Technology

Because of the laser's unique characteristics, lasers are used in various fields.

Some important applications of lasers are discussed here.

Laser Technology in Basic Science:

The revolution in laser spectroscopy was performed due to the availability of narrow linewidth radiation. In measuring, the atomic absorption spectrometers are useful in detecting weak spectral lines.

There are many techniques for detecting weak spectral lines, such as audiovisual spectroscopy, multiphoton ionization spectroscopy, etc.

There are also nonlinear spectral techniques such as photon absorption spectroscopy. The laser reduced the time required to record Raman Spectrum from an hour to minutes. The most commonly used laser is the argon-ion laser for Raman spectroscopy.

In chemistry, lasers are used as a diagnostic tool and as a means of inducing chemical reactions. They also help in separating isotopes of an element.

Lasers commonly used in chemical applications are dye lasers, excimer lasers, carbon dioxide lasers, and Nd: YAG lasers.

Laser Technology in the Industry:

There are many benefits of using laser technology in industry. At present laser is routinely used for scanning, for processing materials such as welding, cutting, glazing, alloying, cladding, non-destructive testing, etc.

Lasers are also used in aligning structures such as bridges, large buildings, tunnels, pipes, mines, etc.

The laser has completely replaced the traditional drilling techniques for drilling holes in diamonds, so as to make bow molds, gems, turbine blades for jet engines; widely used for cutting metal, ceramic, plastic, cardboard, cloth, etc.

Laser annealing of solar cells improves their performance. Lasers can be used to write directly on silicon wafers, and patterns for making integrated circuits.

The laser is widely used for marking on plastic, metal products, etc. Laser scanners are used to read bar codes on consumer goods in shops, to check precision components in workshops, to identify goods carts in a moving train and to read texts and other documents.

Laser Technology in Nuclear Energy:

Nuclear power plants are a type of steam thermal power plant, where they generate heat steam in the reactor furnace.

There is an atomic furnace that needs an insulating wall and an atomic radiation shield.

Laser technology helps workers perform tasks easily and protect themselves in the plant and the surrounding environment from contamination of atomic radiation.

Laser isotope separation is the most economical way to enrich natural uranium.

Lasers also play a crucial role in the search for a viable way to hunt the power of fusion.

Laser Technology in Medical Field:

Laser technologies are used in almost all areas of medical science. The high-intensity high-power laser beam is suitable for tissue cutting and thus a large surgical instrument can replace the traditional scalpel.

The advantages are that the use of lasers: (1) prevents bleeding, (2) reduces the likelihood of injury, and (c) less damage to neighboring cells.

The laser is routinely used for forging the detached retina into the choroid.

Other serious eye conditions that are treated are diabetic rehabilitation, macular degeneration, and bleeding.

Argon laser or krypton ion laser is used for the treatment of these diseases.

Glaucoma is an eye disease where the pressure inside the eyeball increases, damaging the retina and eventually leading to blindness.

To overcome this pressure and save sight, a small hole in the eye is drilled using the Nd: YAG laser.

The laser is used to correct the shape of the lens, for example, in myopia through a procedure called radial keratotomy (RK).

The accuracy of the laser surgery has been a key feature of precision operations such as cardiac surgery and neurological intervention.

Using a fiber-optic endoscope with a laser, it is now possible to quell hemorrhagic ulcers without making any opening in the body.

Another example is the treatment of clogged arteries supplying blood to the heart, a condition that leads to myocardial infarction.

The treatment so far has been a blocked artery shunt with another taken from another part of the body, a procedure known as bypass surgery.

Image radiation therapy is used to treat cancer. The hematoporphyrin derivative (HPD), a dye, has the property to selectively attack cancer cells.

When intense lasers from the gold laser are irradiated by gold, the Hpd molecule decays, and oxygen releases an anti-cancer agent that kills cancer cells and tissues.

Laser Technology in Communication, Information Processing, and Data Storage:

The main drawback of visible light communication (VLC) technology was its weatherability.

In 1974s, Corning scientists produced low-loss optical fibers from high-purity materials. 

Now there is remarkable progress in fiber optic and semiconductor laser technologies.

In addition to data transmission, optical information processing and optical computers are relevant issues.

Visual information processing is used for fingerprint identification, image processing by satellites, high-flying aircraft, etc.

Optical computers based on a dual-stabilized device provide multiple computing speeds as well as parallel computing power.

Data storage is another area in which storage density can be increased using optical methods.

The storage medium is usually a thin layer of metal whose optical properties, such as reflectivity, are modified when illuminated by a powerful "WRITE" laser.

The low-power "READ" laser reads the change in the optical property as the required information. It takes less than one-micron square to record one information.

Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) is widely used as a source of entertainment.

Although the optical data storage disk or laser Disc has high storage capacity on the magnetic disk, written information cannot be erased from the optical data disk.

In the light of a Compact disc (CD), a laser is used for reading instead of a needle, so grooves can be made accurate.

High precision is achieved because the amount of information stored can be very large.

The semiconductor laser reads the CD by turning off the light from the disc and electronically processing it. CDs enable us to store their encyclopedias on single discs.

Traditional PC memory devices operate on the basis of magnetic recording and data reading, but optical discs have greater storage durability and faster access to retrieve data.