Laser Weapon

Gas lasers, chemical lasers and solid state lasers were generally used in medicine or industry, but had little use in warfare. Early laser weapons were inefficient, converting as little as 10% of the input energy into the output light beam. As technology advanced, so did laser efficiency, until laser weapons approached or exceeded 90% efficiency.

Early weapons were heat rays that cause damage primarily through thermal mechanisms. The energy of the beam directly heats the target, causing charring, melting, ignition, and vaporization. A continuous-wave High Energy Laser (HEL) beam is a focused ray of optical radiation, which simply delivers heat to the surface of a target.

Then came blasters which cause mechanical damage by emitting ultra-short pulses of extreme intensity, causing matter to flash suddenly into plasma. The resulting explosion creates a shockwave which causes damage comparable to a heat ray with one tenth to one hundredth the amount of input energy.

Lasers adopt a wide range of wavelengths from the electromagnetic spectrum. Visible and near visible wavelengths have the best performance in an atmosphere and x-ray wavelengths are ideal for space combat, due to their extremely short wavelengths that allow them to be focused at long distances.