Light Touch
Defunct Lasers
Most labs rely on just a handful of lasers, but an estimated 15,000 types have been developed over the years. Here, Steve Wilk explores the lasers that have been consigned to the scrapheap of history.
I don’t believe that anyone has ever counted the precise number of lasers that have been invented. Wikipedia puts the number at a hazy “many thousands,” while Marvin J. Weber, in his Handbook of Laser Wavelengths, lists more than 15,000 different lines. While many lasers have more than one line, and some are not represented even in this comprehensive volume, Weber’s is probably a good estimate. Roughly 80 percent of those are gas lasers.
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