Laser light can carry many more information channels than microwaves because of its high frequency. Lasers are ideal for communications in space. Laser beams can also be used to measure and align structures. They can be used for drilling diamonds, cutting complex shapes in materials from plastics to steel, for spot welding and for surfacing techniques, such as hardening aircraft engine turbine blades. These beams can heat, melt, or vaporize material in a very precise way. In engineering, powerful laser beam can be focused on a small area.
But apart from military uses, they have many applications in engineering, communications, medicine, and the art. Nowadays, they are used to identify targets. In the 1980s, the United States experimented with lasers as a defense against nuclear missiles. When lasers were invented in 1960, some people thought they could be used as ‘death rays’. They can be solid state, gas, semiconductor, or liquid. Lasers (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) are devices which amplify light and produce beams of light which are very instance, directional, and pure in color.