Ion Lasers:

Dan Drollette, Senior Editor

When diode-pumped solid-state lasers first appeared in the marketplace during the early 1990s, argon-ion, helium-neon and other classic laboratory lasers seemed doomed.

The newer technology was more compact and rugged, allowing researchers freedom from constant fussing over leaky gas tubes or problems of alignment, said physicist Larry Brewer of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif. And, unlike large argon-ion lasers, this new technology did not require extensive cooling, so it was no longer necessary to have large hoses snaking throughout the laboratory to deliver several gallons of water per minute.…