Other Types
Chemical reaction is used as a power source in chemical lasers. This allows for very high output powers difficult to reach by other means.
Nuclear fission is used in exotic nuclear pumped lasers (NPL), directly employing the energy of the fast neutrons released in a nuclear reactor.
The United States military tested an X-ray laser pumped by a nuclear weapon in the 1980s, but the results of the test were inconclusive and it has not been repeated.
Read more about this topic: Laser Pumping
Famous quotes containing the word types:
“As for types like my own, obscurely motivated by the conviction that our existence was worthless if we didn’t make a turning point of it, we were assigned to the humanities, to poetry, philosophy, painting—the nursery games of humankind, which had to be left behind when the age of science began. The humanities would be called upon to choose a wallpaper for the crypt, as the end drew near.”
—Saul Bellow (b. 1915)
“Science is intimately integrated with the whole social structure and cultural tradition. They mutually support one other—only in certain types of society can science flourish, and conversely without a continuous and healthy development and application of science such a society cannot function properly.”
—Talcott Parsons (1902–1979)