Lasers’ Potential
Since the first laser was built in 1960, and the scientists behind the physics that made it possible were rewarded a Nobel Prize In Physics in 1964, the technology has continued to find new applications. Lasers are commonly used for:
- engraving & printing,
- fiber optical communications,
- optical disks,
- semiconductor manufacturing,
- surgery,
- healthcare treatment,
- measurements,
- military targeting.
Building upon this, the near future may even see them become crucial in manufacturing processes(welding, 3D printing), satellite telecommunication, propelling spaceships, biotech, computing (photonics), nuclear fusion, and even weapons.
Laser Principles
Laser is an acronym standing for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. The key idea behind laser technology is to produce “coherent” light instead of ordinary light.
Coherent beams of light create a very narrow light at a single wavelength that does not disperse over long distances.
Source: Britannica
The way to create a laser is to stimulate the emitter’s atoms, usually made of gas but can also be liquid or solid, so they emit light and have most of that light trapped and reflected inside the laser until it can escape as a coherent beam of light.
Source: University of Kwazulu-Natali
Lasers can be made for a wide variety of light wavelengths, each using its own material to produce the light, which changes how they operate. Different wavelengths will carry different levels of energy, and be absorbed differently depending on the material targeted.
For example, even just in the medical field, many different lasers can be used depending on the objective.
Source: University of Kwazulu-Natali
(Readers interested in the scientific principles behind laser can read “Principles of Laser” to learn more).
Laser Tech Improvement
Over the years, lasers have greatly improved. New materials increased the available wavelengths, with CO2, ruby, titanium-sapphire, and quantum dots lasers (itself the Nobel Prize of Physics in 2023).
This opened the possibility for ultra-short pulse lasers, as well as lasers fine-tuned to specific applications in manufacturing and medicine.
Low-power lasers quickly became cheap enough to be integrated into code bar scanners in the 1970s. Later on, they would be used to read data stored in CDs, and later DVDs and Blu-Ray disks.
Source: Laser Warfare
New forms of lasers could also be on the horizon, with, for example, “open-air lasers”, which could be more robust and lighter.
Laser Applications
Infinitesimal Time Observations
One of the applications of ultrashort laser pulses is to “illuminate” a target very briefly, in the order of the femtosecond, one million of a billionth of a second.
This makes the observation of phenomena like molecule chemical reactions previously seen as instantaneous possible.
Source: Nobel Prize
Further progress is even opening a whole new scientific field, attosecond science (1/1000th of a femtosecond). With it, scientists can study the electron dynamics inside atoms and molecules, and matter in the condensed phase could be probed.
Engraving & Manufacturing
Lasers can be used to carve into materials very precisely. However, the problem is that too long of use of the laser creates quick heating of the material, which creates damaging shockwaves. For powerful lasers or materials requiring no defects, this used to be a problem.
Improved femtosecond lasers are still performing the carving but are short enough not to overheat, removing this problem.
Source: Nobel Prize
Today, lasers are routinely used for drilling, cutting, marking, texturing, and welding metals, as well as plastic, wood, glass, etc.
“Many of today’s manufactured parts call for microscopic features that can only be created with laser drilling.
Very small, complex features can be produced in a variety of materials, with methods such as direct write, trepanning, and mask projection, with no heat effects or material damage.”
Matt Nipper, director of engineering for Laser Light Technologies, now part of Spectrum Plastics.
Modern laser machines are controlled through advanced software in the same way as CNC machines. Laser manufacturing tools range from small desktop devices costing a few thousand dollars to multi-million-dollar factory-sized machines.
Lasers can even be so precise that they are now used for removing insulation from wires.
“Insulation can be removed to within a 0.005-inch tolerance. Stripping can be programmed to ablate insulation at any point along the wire, enabling high-precision mid-span removals.”
Matt Nipper, director of engineering for Laser Light Technologies, now part of Spectrum Plastics.
3D Printing
Many 3D printers use a laser to melt the plastic or metal used to form the 3D-printed final product. This includes laser-bed fusion, a technique that could become even more precise and powerful by using a ring-shaped laser beam.
Source: International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture
Two lasers at once could also become a standard setup to speed up the additive manufacturing process.
Overall, as 3D printing becomes an increasingly large part of manufacturing processes, as discussed in “3D Printing Consolidating Into The Future Of Manufacturing”, we can expect demand for lasers to equally rise.
Medical Uses
Lasers’ intense light can be used to create laser-plasma acceleration, accelerating particles like protons and electrons at extreme levels of energy. These can be used for radiation therapy, with lasers allowing for machines small enough to fit in a hospital setting, contrary to particle accelerators that are much larger and bulkier.
Ultra-fast lasers are also used for eye surgery, from LASIK surgery removing the need for glasses to photocoagulation to treat diabetic retinopathy (diseases of the retina).
Source: Nobel Prize
Lasers can be used for skin treatment, from affecting just the upper layer to the deeper blood vessels, depending on the wavelength used.
Source: Laser Focus World
Lastly, lasers have applications for cosmetic treatments, from hair and tattoo removal to skin rejuvenation, removal of acne scars and pigmented blemishes (e.g., age spots and moles).
Data Storage
Lasers have been used for encoding data in optical disks for several decades now. Stronger, smaller wavelength lasers are able to store data more densely, hence the turn to blue LED laser for Blu-Ray.
However, it is becoming now clear that optical disks are not a durable form of data storage.
So many methods using lasers are now considered, like low-power engraving on polymers, other forms of mechanical data storage, engraving diamonds, or 5D crystal disks.
Source: University of Southampton
In any case, the ability of lasers to be as precise as the nanometers of their light wavelength makes them likely to stay a preferred method of data recording, especially for long-term storage.
Semiconductor Engraving
Since the origin of the industry, semiconductor manufacturers have used lasers to prepare the material used to create computer chips.
A key advantage is that laser cutting and engraving do not require any contact, and produce less dust than alternatives, an important advantage for materials requiring the highest level of cleanliness. Laser cutting also wastes less material and does not create cracks.
Lasers are used to perform welding, coating removal, and marking of semiconductor material and equipment.
Computing
As classical silicon chips are becoming almost as small as possible, new forms of computing are considered to keep increasing the power of our computers and data centers.
One of them is photonics, using light instead of electrons to carry the computational data. The method uses a lot of ultra-fast lasers, as well as light sensors and optical fibers to replace silicon transistors and might be a way to keep Moore’s Law alive.
Another option is quantum computers, using quantum effects to perform computations normally impossible for normal computers. Lasers could help here too, from infrared lasers to manipulate hydrogen atoms to using lasers to magnetize non-magnetic substances.
Telecom
Besides semiconductors & computing, lasers have been used for decades to transmit information.
Laser diodes can produce coherent light with a narrow frequency, allowing multiple channels of information to be sent through a single fiber optic cable. They are mostly used for long-distance telecommunication and made using quantum dots.
Lasers can also be used for space telecommunication, either between satellites or between satellites and Earth-bound stations.
The main advantage of using laser communications over radio waves is increased bandwidth, enabling the transfer of more data in less time. Another quality is that laser telecommunication is almost impossible to intercept, as it would require any eavesdropping to be physically next to the receiver.
For example, Starlink’s satellites each contain 3 laser Intersatellites Links (ISLs) operating at 200 Gbps (GigaBytes per Second) to transmit data to each other before beaming it back to Starlink stations.
In the future, any space telecommunication with potential Moon or Martian bases will also most likely use laser, as it provides both the quickest possible data transfer and the highest possible bandwidth.
Biotech
Fluorescence
An often-forgotten application of lasers is in biotech. The early method was Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF), where a laser is used to get biological tissues or molecules to emit back green or red light, allowing for their observation in a fluorescence microscope.
Source: MicroscopyU
Lasers are used in flow cytometers to separate cells in a sample as well.
An important sub-segment of this technique is LIF spectroscopy, used in chromatography and capillary electrophoresis, both very important techniques in biochemistry for the analysis of biological molecules.
Gene Sequencing & Medicine
Another increasingly important biotech application of laser is genetic sequencing.
Source: Memorial University
Improvement in laser technology and declining costs have been key factors in making gene sequencing more generalized and available to both researchers and medical specialists.
Lasers are used for cancer detection and cancer cell analysis and can also be used to cut thin tissue slices for further analysis.
Sensors and Self-Driving Vehicles.
Lasers can be used to measure the environment around them. It can be used for positioning lasers in factories, measuring distance, or the presence of an obstacle.
Complex systems of such lasers are used in LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), using pulses of laser light to measure the distance of objects around it. LIDAR systems are routinely used for mapping.
LIDARs are a key component of most self-driving vehicle systems (with the exception of Telsa’s reliance on cameras only), including Google’s Waymo (GOOGL -0.2%).
Direct Energy Weapon
As drones are becoming a growing threat on modern battlefields, armies all over the world are looking for low-cost solutions to shoot them down.
This is especially important as most suicide drones cost just a few thousand dollars at most, making any missile or even gun base solution often more expensive than the target.
A solution could be laser-based weapons, a sub-category of direct energy weapons (which also include microwave beams, for example). The idea is to use a powerful laser beam to burn the drone before it can become a threat.
Source: Laser Focus World
As the cost of the “ammunition” would be only the cost of energy, this could be one of the only viable options in the long run. The idea is, however still far from mature, with a few issues to solve before deployment in active battlefields:
- Laser weapons can be hindered by foggy weather.
- Energy consumption is massive, making both its generation and storage for rapid-fire problematic.
- Lasers tend to be relatively fragile devices, making them not-so-reliable in a front-line role.
Most likely, the first large-scale deployment application of laser-based weaponry will be for fixed facilities like military bases and ships.
Nuclear fusion
Currently, the dominant strategy for achieving nuclear fusion is using tokamaks, and donut-shape structures using magnetic fields to contain the plasma.
As we explained in “Nuclear Fusion – The Ultimate Clean Energy Solution on the Horizon”, this is, however, not the only possible method to achieve nuclear fusion. Another option is to use lasers to try to make hydrogen atoms so hot that they collide with each other, which then instantly creates shockwaves, pushing the hydrogen atoms together.
A good example is the U.S. National Ignition Facility (NIF), which guides, amplifies, reflects, and focuses 192 powerful laser beams into a target about the size of a pencil eraser. This delivers 500 trillion watts of peak power in one spot.
Source: Britannica
Such systems are good candidates for potential commercial nuclear fusion, and might also be useful for pulsed fusion propulsion for deep-space spaceships.
Space Applications
Astrophysics
Astrophysics often deals with extreme conditions of pressure and temperature, hard to replicate on Earth. For example, the content of stars or gaseous giant planets.
X-ray free-electron Lasers (XFELs) can help study such Warm Dense Matter (WDM), which in turn could help create better spacecraft and nuclear fusion engines.
Orbital solar
A growing possibility for clean energy generation is orbital solar. This is because the cost of launching a power system into orbit is declining very quickly, making viable the idea of lifting thousands of tons of cargo into orbit or space-based manufacturing.
As we explored in “Space-Based Energy Solutions For Endless Clean Energy“, the energy generated could be beamed back to Earth using either microwave beams or powerful lasers.
Solar Sail
Another future space-based possibility for lasers is solar sails. The key idea is that while photons are mass-less, they still carry a minuscule momentum.
In the weightless environment of deep space, this little bit of push can be enough to accelerate a spaceship.
A solar sail would be a large sail made of foil able to catch light and turn it into propulsion. Orbital or Moon-based laser systems could throw more light at such a system and make it accelerate to speeds unreachable with chemical rocketry.
Source: For All Mankind TV
This method could even be used for interstellar travel, as it could theoretically push a spaceship up to 20% of the speed of light using known physics.
Investing In Laser Technology
Lasers are present in countless parts of modern technology, from optical disks to surgery tools, 3D printing, semiconductors, manufacturing, and genome sequencers, with a $17.8B market expected to grow by 7.8% CAGR until 2030.
You can invest in laser-related companies through many brokers, and you can find here, on securities.io, our recommendations for the best brokers in the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK, as well as many other countries.
If you are not interested in picking specific companies, you can also look into technology ETFs like iShares U.S. Technology ETF (IYW) or ProShares Nanotechnology ETF (TINY) even if there is no dedicated laser-only ETF available, which will provide a more diversified exposure to capitalize on the nanotech & tech stocks.
You can also learn how to invest in gallium in our dedicated report, as gallium is a key element for the making of laser, currently at the center of the US-China trade war
Laser Company
II-VI Marlow / Coherent
Coherent, Inc. (COHR -0.19%)
Coherent is a large industrial conglomerate with 26,000+ employees and a leader in laser technology, resulting from the merger of advanced material II-VI Marlow with laser maker Coherent.
The company is an expert in advanced materials used in lasers, optics, and photonics, such as indium phosphide, epitaxial wafers, and gallium arsenide. It grew largely thanks to multiple acquisitions over the last decade.
Source: Coherent
The company derives 29% of its revenues from laser directly, with the rest linked to associated equipment like optical fiber, and electronics. The instrumentation category mostly includes life sciences and medical applications.
Source: Coherent
The presence of the company in advanced materials like thermophotovoltaics (which we discussed in a previous article), silicon carbide, lasers, and electronics helps it benefit from structural trends like the growth of precision manufacturing, additive manufacturing (3D printing), electrification, and renewables energies.
The company has recently separated its silicon carbide business into a new entity, owned at 75% by Coherent, with the rest owned equally by its partners Mitsubishi Electric (bringing silicon carbide power IP) and Denso (bringing its activity as an automotive supplier on electrification and power semiconductors).
This is because silicon carbide is increasingly its own technology, mostly used in high-power applications like EVs, batteries, and renewable energy.
Coherent is a leader in LIDAR and 3D-digital sensing, including for self-driving applications, biotech Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Flow Cells, and lasers for semiconductor manufacturing. It expects its mains markets to grow at 8-20%.
Source: Coherent
The other potential new applications of lasers like direct energy weapons, photonic computing, nuclear fusion, and spacetech could all equally help sustain the long-term growth of the company.
Overall, Coherent is as close as it can get to a “pure play” publicly traded laser company for investors interested in the sector, with strong vertical integration and 3,100+ patents protecting its innovations.
