Solid-State Lasers Are Gunning for Argon-Ion' Place
An air-cooled ion laser consumes a kilowatt or more to produce 10 to 20 mW of blue light. Solid-state lasers can do the same job with a few tens of watts — or, in some cases, less than 10 W — of electrical input. The power and pointing stability and the beam quality of solid-state lasers are competitive with those of argon lasers.