laser: Media

instrument

Videos

Discover how a laser beam emits light
Learn how a laser beam emits light.
Video: © MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Using lasers to detect structural damage in metal objects
New laser-based technique to check the structural integrity of airplanes, ships or...
Video: © American Chemical Society (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
What happens inside a CD player?
An infrared laser is focused onto the metallic reflective layer of the disc, where...
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
How scientists use lasers to learn about the universe
Learn about the PHELIX (Petawatt High-Energy Laser for Heavy Ion Experiments) laser...
Video: Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz
See how to break the “cosmic speed limit” of light by using a laser
Learn how the speed of light can technically be exceeded with a laser.
Video: © MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)

Images

laser components: cutaway view
Basic laser components.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
first laser
Theodore H. Maiman of Hughes Aircraft Company showing a cube of synthetic ruby crystal,...
Hughes Aircraft Company
first gas laser
Ali Javan, a researcher at Bell Telephone Laboratories, displaying the first gas...
Authenticated News
three-level laser
A burst of energy excites electrons in more than half of the atoms from their ground...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
four-level laser
A sustained laser beam can be achieved by using atoms that have two relatively stable...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
laser
Laser producing a beam.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
laser cavity
Stimulated emission in a laser cavity.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
laser scanner
Since their introduction in 1974, laser scanners for reading universal product codes...
© 2006 Index Open
the laser scanning method employed in compact disc players
An infrared laser is focused onto the metallic reflective layer of the disc, where...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
fibre optic cable
Modern communication systems use fibre optic cables, which may have as many as a...
© 2006 Index Open
photodynamic therapy (PDT) fibre optic surgery
A photosensitive drug absorbed by cancer cells can be activated by a laser beam guided...
John Crawford—National Cancer Institute
laser-activated fusion
Interior of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Ignition Facility (NIF), located...
U.S. Department of Energy
Olympus Mons on Mars
Olympus Mons, the highest point on Mars, in a computer-generated oblique view made...
NASA/JPL/MOLA Science Team
holography
Holography uses no camera. Instead, two beams of light from a single laser shine...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Arthur Schawlow
Arthur Schawlow with a ring dye laser in his laboratory at Stanford University, California....
Paul Sakuma—AP/REX/Shutterstock.com