How Laser Weapons Work

At its most basic, a laser is a light source. To understand how it can become a weapon, it's helpful to think about how it's different from the light sources that are around you every day. Start with an ordinary incandescent light bulb. The bulb sends light waves out in every direction. These waves, just like waves in water, have peaks and troughs, or high points and low points. If you were able to see each light wave coming from an incandescent bulb, you'd see lots of peaks and troughs passing you at the same time. There are also lots of frequencies, or colors, of light coming from a light bulb, and they all combine to create what looks like white light.

Now, think of a flashlight. A flashlight's beam is more focused than what comes from a naked light bulb. Most of its light travels in one direction, depending on where you point the flashlight. There are still lots of frequencies of light that combine to create white light, and the peaks and troughs of the different light waves pass by at different times.

A laser is even more focused than a flashlight. It creates only one wavelength, or color, of light. The peaks and troughs from the light waves are also synchronized peak to peak and trough to trough. This means that the different waves don't interfere with each other. This light travels only in one direction. The light beam can be tightly focused and remain so over great distances. Lasers can produce light of tremendous powers (1,000 to 1 million times stronger than a typical light bulb). Various types of lasers can produce various wavelengths of light, from the infrared range through the visible wavelengths to the ultraviolet range.

Light is basically moving energy. A laser produces very intense energy that can travel over very long distances. That's why a laser can become a weapon while the light from an incandescent bulb typically can't.

To do this, a laser has to produce light in a nonconventional way. "Laser" stands for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. In other words, a laser produces light by stimulating the release of photons, or light particles. A laser needs four basic parts to do this:

The lasing process is all about storing and releasing energy. An energy source injects energy into the lasing medium. The energy excites electrons, which move up to higher energy levels. When the electrons relax, they emit photons. The photons move back and forth between the mirrors, exciting other electrons as they go. This produces powerful, focused light.

Next, we'll start to look at some of the lasers being used for the military.

There are many different types of lasers:

There are several lasers currently being used for military purposes. One that's being researched and developed is the free electron laser (FEL). In the 1970s, Stanford physicist John Madey invented and patented the FEL, which consists of an electron injector, a particle accelerator and a magnetic undulator or wiggler. It works like this:

FELs have been used to produce high-energy infrared light and synchrotron X-rays for research purposes. The FEL was also a laser of interest for the Defense Department's Strategic Defense Initiative (President Reagan's "Star Wars" program). Recently, the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School acquired Madey's original FEL developed at Stanford University, to use for military research.

In 1977, the U.S. Air Force developed a chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL). The energy source for the COIL is a chemical reaction, and the lasing medium is molecular iodine. Here's how it works: atoms, heat and byproducts, including water vapor and potassium chloride.

The COIL laser is used aboard the Air Force's Airborne Laser, which we'll talk about next.

In the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein's forces fired SCUD missiles at Israel and U.S. bases in the Middle East. The Patriot missile defense system was deployed to protect American interests. Patriot missiles can destroy incoming missiles on their downward path, but what if you could catch it earlier and destroy the missile during its boost phase (the upward path near its origin)? That's what the U.S. Air Force's Airborne Laser (ABL) is designed to do -- it's being developed by Boeing, Northrup Grumman and Lockheed Martin contractors.

The ABL is mounted in a modified Boeing 747 jumbo jet. It consists of four lasers, advanced adaptive optics, sensors, and computers to locate, track and destroy missiles. It works like this:

All of the operations are coordinated by computer.

The Air Force is currently testing the ABL and says that its range is in the order of hundreds of kilometers. The ABL will require a crew of six when it is fully operational, and they'll wear special safety goggles to protect their eyes from possible reflections of the beams by water droplets in the air.

High-energy lasers like those developed for the ABL are being designed and developed for use on land and at sea. These lasers would be truck- or ship-mounted and capable of shooting down incoming missiles, artillery shells and possibly enemy aircraft.

Now we know that high-energy lasers are used to shoot down missiles, but do they have nonlethal uses, too? Yes. In fact, one such system has been tested and will soon be operational. It's called the Active Denial System (ADS). The ADS isn't a laser, but a truck-mounted high-energy radio frequency generator and directional antenna. A generator inside creates a 95 GHz millimeter wave. (Millimeter waves have wavelengths of 1 to 10 millimeters and frequencies of 30 to 300 GHz.) The directional antenna focuses the millimeter waves and allows the operator to point the beam. The millimeter beam penetrates the skin of anyone in its path to a depth of 1/64th of an inch, about the thickness of three sheets of paper. Like a microwave oven, the energy of the beam heats water molecules in the skin tissue and causes an intense burning sensation. The beam doesn't permanently injure because it doesn't penetrate very far, and when a person moves out of the beam, the sensation goes away (see How Military Pain Beams Will Work).

Suppose you could momentarily stun or distract an opponent. The Air Force has developed a device that will do just that -- the Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response (PHaSR). The PHaSR incorporates two low-power diode lasers, one visible and one infrared. It's about the size of a rifle and can be fired by an individual. The laser light temporarily distracts or "dazzles" the target person without blinding him.

The Department of Defense is also developing other optical distracter devices that could temporarily impair a target's vision.

You don't have to be a sci-fi fan to be wondering if there are any personal laser weapons on the market for civilians. Maybe something like those you see in science fiction shows? Can an average person purchase or build one? A company called Information Unlimited advertises a laser ray gun. After signing a hazardous equipment affidavit and purchasing the plans, you can purchase the hardware and assemble your very own laser gun.

Information Unlimited's laser ray gun is a solid state laser that uses a flash lamp as an energy primer and a neodinium glass rod as the lasing medium. It works much like the ruby laser described in How Lasers Work. It requires 12 volts of DC power, which comes from AA batteries. It emits infrared light of 1.06 micrometer wavelength in short 3 joule pulses for a total of 500 joules of energy. The beam is focused with a collimating lens, which straightens the beams and makes them parallel. It's classified as a hazardous class IV laser, and the company claims that it's capable of burning holes in most materials (infrared lasers can do these things). So you might not want to pick one up for your 9-year-old's birthday.

To learn more about laser weapons, take a look at the links on the next page.