A 20 watt laser falls within the category of a Class 4 laser, the most potent and hazardous kind of laser. It emits a beam that has the potential to instantly burn the skin and inflict eye damage while also igniting flammable substances. Because of this, it needs specific safeguards and procedures to be used properly.
Class 4 lasers are utilized in a variety of processes, including metal cutting and welding, surface engraving and marking, and medical procedures. They use four-level laser systems, which means that four different energy levels in the laser medium are engaged in producing the laser beam. The ground state, excited state, metastable state, and upper state are the four levels.
A population inversion, or having more atoms in the excited state than the ground state, is possible with the four-level laser system. As a result, there is a possibility for photons to be stimulated into coherent, monochromatic laser beams. The ruby laser, developed by Theodore Maiman in 1960, was the first laser to employ this technique.
The ruby laser is a pulsed laser since it produces high-energy photons in brief bursts as opposed to a continuous beam. This is due to the short upper-state lifetime of the ruby crystal, which causes the atoms to swiftly revert to the ground state and pulse with energy. Pulsed lasers are utilized for a variety of tasks, including cutting, drilling, and ablation as well as for scientific and medical research.
The free-electron laser, which can produce beams with energy in the petawatt range (10–15 watts), is the most powerful form of laser. It employs a relativistic electron beam that is undulated by a magnetic field, causing coherent photons to be released. Advanced research facilities like synchrotrons and X-ray lasers use free-electron lasers.
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is the most potent laser in the world. It is a solid-state laser that has a maximum power of 500 terawatts (1012 watts) and a maximum pulse energy of 1.8 megajoules. High-energy density physics and nuclear fusion research both make use of the NIF laser.
A 20 watt laser is a Class 4 laser, which means it needs extra safety precautions and has a variety of uses. It is run on a four-level laser system that enables coherent laser beam production and stimulated emission of photons. The first laser to employ this technology was a pulsed four-level laser called the ruby laser. The world’s most potent laser, the NIF laser, is a free-electron laser, which is the strongest kind of laser.